THE SHOE

Symposium

The late 1950s. In Liepāja, a port and border town in Western Latvia (and birthplace of the director), vigilance is the order of the day. Alas, boredom is too. A single shoe has been found and now the search is on for the corresponding lady who lost it, conducted by three soldiers. Why exactly? Well, because our Cinderella is suspected of being a foreign spy, of course. Laila Pakalniņa’s cinema is a veritable school of the absurd, as is THE SHOE, her fiction feature debut, which was shown in Cannes. The camera and accompanying thoughts glide slowly across a bizarre wasteland rutted by violence and the surveillance that becomes the epitome of societal transformation (as stalemate).
KURPE / DER SCHUH
LVA, DEU, USA 1998 / 82 min
Language: Latvian
Director: Laila Pakalniņa
  • Screenplay: Laila Pakalniņa
  • Cinematographer: Gints Bērzinš
  • Editor: Sandra Alksne
  • Sound: Anrijs Krenbergs
  • Cast: Ivars Brakovskis, Vadims Grossmans, Jaan Tätte
  • Producer: Christoph Meyer-Wiel
  • Production Company: Black Forest Films, Hargla Company
  • Co-Production Company: ZDF, Signpost Productions
  • Rights Holder: National Film Centre of Latvia
The late 1950s. In Liepāja, a port and border town in Western Latvia (and birthplace of the director), vigilance is the order of the day. Alas, boredom is too. A single shoe has been found and now the search is on for the corresponding lady who lost it, conducted by three soldiers. Why exactly? Well, because our Cinderella is suspected of being a foreign spy, of course. Laila Pakalniņa’s cinema is a veritable school of the absurd, as is THE SHOE, her fiction feature debut, which was shown in Cannes. The camera and accompanying thoughts glide slowly across a bizarre wasteland rutted by violence and the surveillance that becomes the epitome of societal transformation (as stalemate).
  • Screenplay: Laila Pakalniņa
  • Cinematographer: Gints Bērzinš
  • Editor: Sandra Alksne
  • Sound: Anrijs Krenbergs
  • Cast: Ivars Brakovskis, Vadims Grossmans, Jaan Tätte
  • Producer: Christoph Meyer-Wiel
  • Production Company: Black Forest Films, Hargla Company
  • Co-Production Company: ZDF, Signpost Productions
  • Rights Holder: National Film Centre of Latvia