Pickles, sweet tea, strawberries and a warm smile. This is how we are greeted by the director’s grandmother, Aina – an 88-year-young woman. Health concerns and medication, which she jokingly calls “narcotics”, have become inseparable parts of her everyday life. Yet Aina’s outlook on life is surprisingly light: there is no shortage of understanding, humour, or the ability to laugh at herself and the world around her. Her character is revealed through five phrases she uses most often in everyday life. Five small keys to a life lived to the fullest.

Ozoliņa observes her grandmother with a loving, deeply personal gaze, allowing a nuanced portrait to emerge through their conversations, moments of silence and togetherness. And the personal becomes universally relatable. The director works with analogue photography; this short, too, was shot on 16mm film. Her interest in the materiality of the image and its physical presence grew through her studies in contemporary photography and experimental film, as well as her work at Baltic Analog Lab. This tender portrait is the director’s personal attempt not to stop time, but to look it in the eye – with a cucumber in one hand, sweet tea in the other, and a smile that shows no sign of fading. In 2024, Ozoliņa’s short film Searching was screened in the RIGA IFF competition, while her latest work was presented at SHORT RIGA Test Screenings.