Tribeca Film Festival: January

“January” is an autobiographical take on the political upheaval in the early 1990s that changed the lives of the people of the former Soviet Union. The film will have its world premiere at Tribeca in the International Narrative Competition.

In 1991 Latvia, nineteen-year-old aspiring cinematographer Jazis’ world is thrown into chaos as he is dragged into the people’s peaceful protests against the Soviet Army’s attempted takeover of power in his country.

Jazis and his friends Anna and Zeps are all aspiring filmmakers, trying to pursue their dreams of making movies and enjoy the freedom of young adulthood, when the collapse of the political system in the region upends their plans, family ties and friendship. Their experience and participation in the nonviolent resistance through the construction of barricades and human shields becomes the defining moment in their coming-of-age.

“I was 19 in January 1991, so I am very familiar with the protagonists and events of the film. At that age, I was fighting for my personal freedom while the Latvian nation was fighting for freedom from the crushing totalitarian regime of the USSR. The war in Ukraine demonstrates that this fight is not…