On 17 October, with an eruption of creative energy and unrelenting thunder of guitar riffs, Riga International Film Festival (RIGA IFF, 17-27 October) will open with a screening of Uģis Olte film TESA MAN (2024). The poetic music film, which will have its world premiere on the festival’s opening night, in riveting musical rhythms by heavy metal trio Tesa and hypnotic landscapes of Vidzeme, reveals the magical interrelation between music and nature and invites to experience the animistic spirit of the world. Tickets to the festival opening night are available on the festival website (rigaiff.lv), and at Biļešu Serviss sales points.

As per tradition, RIGA IFF opens with a film made in Latvia, and in the festival’s 11th edition, the honour has been bestowed on the world premiere of Uģis Olte film TESA MAN (2024). Resembling an alchemic experiment, the synthesis of music, cinema, and nature is the result of handing over the concert venue of the heavy metal trio Tesa to the terrain of the open-air art space Savvaļa, the frozen landscape of Vidzeme, and the unpredictable weather of November.

Festival Director Liene Treimane on RIGA IFF opening night screening:

“It’s hard to imagine a better choice for the opening evening of RIGA IFF than this breathtaking blend of music and nature, set to celebrate its world premiere as it reverberates through the luxurious interiors of Riga’s oldest cinema, the Splendid Palace. This extraordinary music film brings together a remarkable team of cinematographers, artists, and musicians, all united by the compelling vision of a passionate director. It promises to be a bright and powerful launch for the festival’s eleventh edition.”

With psychedelic whirlpools of Tesa musical compositions mixing with air, steam, ash, and clay, the film – a ritual – pulls the spectator into an abstract space, dominated by laws and wants of nature. The fragile boundary between nature and a human being, rotting leaves and first snow has been captured by nine Latvian cinematographers, acclaimed masters of camera belonging to different generations. Meanwhile in the amphitheatre – a crosscut of a clay–saturated mountain between Drusti and Jaunpiebalga – sliding into the contrasting shadows of the night, the set design of artist Andris Eglītis is brought to life and nature itself takes on the shape of a body covered in ash and clay.

“During my teenage years, I spent countless nights playing music with friends. To me, music is still the most magical of arts (although cinema is the most exciting). I understood then that playing in a band is not only the most profound form of nonverbal communication, but also a ritual, creating something that cannot be produced by any one person on their own. I wanted to embody this feeling in TESA MAN. To paint this energy in the air, whenever people create something together. For this kind of alchemic experiment, it would be impossible to find components more potent than the music of the heavy metal trio Tesa and a Vidzeme landscape imagined by Andris Eglītis. Add in a group of talented individuals, capable of recording and capturing this reaction on film, and a little bit of emptiness, giving way to chance,”

director Uģis Olte describes his newest work, a quest into the relationship between collaborative creativity and the wild of nature.

TESA MAN world premiere will take place on 17 October, 19:00, at cinema Splendid Palace, Large Hall. Tickets to the event kicking off the celebration of cinema over 11 days are available on the festival website (rigaiff.lv), and at Biļešu Serviss sales points.

From 17 to 27 October, RIGA IFF will delight the senses of filmgoers with more than 100 screenings of bold and fresh filmmaker visions, selected from the world’s most prestigious film festival programmes, as well as from the kindred Baltic Sea region cinema. Until the full festival programme announcement on 17 September, RIGA IFF will continue to reveal other highly artistic works of this year’s programme – films awarded at Rotterdam, Berlin, Cannes, Venice, and other film festivals, as well as bold hidden gems of contemporary cinema. Follow festival updates on rigaiff.lv and festival social media accounts, as well as by subscribing to RIGA IFF newsletter.

RIGA IFF’s main partner is the media and technology company Tet. The festival is made possible with the support of the State Culture Capital Foundation, EU programme “Creative Europe – MEDIA”, Riga City Council, and the National Film Centre of Latvia.