Young ice cream vendor Max aspires to become a techno musician but he experiences a paralyzing fear of performing before stepping on stage at a club. Torn between his toxic friend Alex and his muse Helen, he will need to find the courage to overcome his self-doubt and limitations. 

In this dreamlike exploration of identity, blue is definitely the warmest color – the color of the sea, clothes, a scoop of ice-cream and Max’s inner feelings. This chromatic detail is one of the many fine, eclectic artistic choices that director Vanags makes to embellish North Pole – he quotes French filmmaker Leos Carax as an influence. From the constant tension between opposite poles throughout the story, between angelic and devilish figures, between the foggy Baltic shore and a rave club, strange beauty and thought-provoking truths arise. North Pole never goes south.

Jury statement: With an eye for striking compositions and flashes of poetry that can transform the familiar at rare moments of the day or night, an atmospheric world is created that signals a fresh new voice in Baltic cinema.