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The 9th Riga International Film Festival (RIGA IFF) will begin on 13 October with the national premiere of Signe Baumane\u2019s film\u00a0My Love Affair with Marriage<\/i><\/a>, which will also mark the start of the festival\u2019s main central section, the\u00a0RIGA IFF Feature Film Competition<\/a>. This year, ten films from the Baltic Sea region and the Nordic countries will compete for the festival\u2019s main award and a prize worth EUR 4,000. A jury composed of five international film professionals will preside over the competition.<\/p>\n The Feature Film Competition includes works by Latvian filmmakers: Signe Baumane\u2019s autobiographical\u00a0My Love Affair with Marriage<\/i><\/a>\u00a0is an animated case history of a young woman\u2019s love life, seen from the perspective of her brain, while Mat\u012bss Ka\u017eas\u2019 coming-of-age drama\u00a0Neon Spring<\/i><\/a>, starring poet and actress Marija Lu\u012bze Me\u013c\u0137e, exposes urban rave culture confidently showing it in both its glory and its misery.<\/p>\n The dynamic rhythms of the streets of Calcutta are brought to life in\u00a0Bengali Variation<\/i><\/a>\u00a0by Latvia-based director Siegfried;\u00a0Burial<\/i>\u00a0<\/a>is a poetic observation on what was once the most powerful nuclear power plant in the world and the only one in the Baltics and the python that lives within;\u00a0Day and Night<\/i><\/a>, which will have its world premiere at RIGA IFF, uncovers the feminine balance between polar opposites and the witchiness that resides deep in the forests of East Poland. 2017 festival winner Rainer Sarnet returns to once more compete for the main award with his latest film, the historical fiction\u00a0The Diary of Vaino Vahing<\/i><\/a>.<\/p>\n The Nordic cinema landscape is also well represented in this year\u2019s RIGA IFF Feature Film Competition. This selection also includes the Danish and Icelandic co-production,\u00a0Godland<\/i><\/a>, which is directed by Hlynur P\u00e1lmason who is well-known to Latvian audiences, and that premiered at the Cannes Film Festival, as well as Icelandic\u00a0Beautiful Beings<\/i><\/a>, which explores rough teenage masculinity using magical realism. Lovers of Finnish black humour will be delighted by the comedy\u00a0The Woodcutter Story<\/i><\/a>\u00a0about a man down on his luck, while pulsating with hip-hop rhythms,\u00a0Locals<\/i><\/a>\u00a0will awaken the desire to come together in its mosaic-like portrait of Stockholm\u2019s S\u00f6dermalm district. This will be the film\u2019s international premiere.<\/p>\n