My Favorite War (Mans mīļākais karš)
Ajyal Competition
Ilze Burkovska - Jacobsen / Feature Documentary / Latvia, Norway / 2020 / 80 min
In English, Latvian
Interests: Animation
MENA Premiere
Synopsis
A personal, animated documentary that tells the compelling story of the director’s formative years growing up in Latvia, part of the Soviet Union from 1970 to 1990. The Cold War regime of the time famously used World War II as a vital ideological weapon to intimidate and oppress the population. However, when young Ilze discovers the remains of a German soldier in her sandbox, she begins to question the stated reality. Emboldened by the discovery, she starts digging for other stories buried deeper underneath the propaganda.
The film compassionately draws out the internal pressures of her family, contrasting her father, who earnestly served the Communist Party until his tragically premature death, with her mother, who lived under the shadow of her own father’s conviction as an official “enemy of the state.” Striking the perfect balance between stylized animated scenes, privy narration, and archival footage, ‘My Favorite War’ is a unique coming-of-age story with universal appeal about finding one’s own identity, truth, and loyalty.
Credits
- Director
- Ilze Burkovska - Jacobsen
- Screenwriter
- Ilze Burkovska - Jacobsen
- Producer
- Trond Jacobsen, Guntis Trekteris
- Editor
- Julie Vinten, Reinis Rinka
- Composer
- Kārlis Auzāns
- Cinematographer
- Andrejs Verhoustinskis, Trond Jacobsen, Mārcis Ābele
- Production Company
- Bivrost Film, Ego Media
- Sound
- Ernests Ansons
- Distributor
- Ego Media