To emphasise SHORT RIGA’s interest in auteur cinema, it is now an annual tradition to introduce audiences to a world-famous short filmmaker by inviting them to participate in a retrospective of their work.
This year’s Persona section is dedicated to world-famous Latvian animation director Vladimir Leshchiov (1970). The way in which Leschiov explores new avenues and universal themes has attracted a large audience internationally, which now even exceeds his local audience. The director’s animated shorts exude a familiar warmth and with his characteristic attention to detail he creates symbolic strands of narrative. Leschiov usually works with classical animation techniques using watercolours and sometimes even experiments with coffee and tea. He does, however, also use digital techniques. Like each of his films, each scene tells an independent story; every frame is at the same time a small work of art and a universe of its own.