People don’t want to see their faces as they are – they prefer the ideal. So asserts the untamable Juris Kalniņš, as he presents his photographic archives and lifetime of work to the camera. For most of his life, he has been capturing images of his fellow artists, his time and ordinary people on the streets. Now, he has turned to drone aerial photography. Having obtained the perspective of the all-seeing eye, the film’s protagonist returns to his father’s gravesite and digs a hole…

With care and subtlety, Arnis Kalniņš, who once studied sociology, turns his lens on his father’s portrait. Moving from scene to scene and deliberately steering clear of conventional biographical film clichés, he has put together a contextual and intimate collage of life, family history, resistance during the Soviet occupation, and memories that can only be hummed. The film brushes against the war in Ukraine, giving voice to shared experiences through song.