Lotus

Latvia, 1919: Alice von Trota sets out to reinvent cinema! A bewitching brew of horror, fantasy and melodrama, full of high notes, grand gestures, dazzling sights and inspiring sounds. Filmmaking as visual witchcraft – 24 spells per second.

Latvia, 1919, shortly after the nation’s independence from the Russian Empire. When Alice von Trota returns to her family’s manor, she finds the place simmering in turmoil – which is as good a reason as any to sell the house and grounds she inherited from her recently departed father. Among the people on and around the estate is a film lover – who puts ideas of artistic glory into Alice’s head which will lead to the creation of the most outrageous avant-garde moving image works of early Latvian cinema…

If only in the parallel universe that is Lotus, for there never was an Alice von Trota, even if there should have been. Befittingly, Signe Birkova plays a lot around with genre tropes and tones, mixing horror, fantasy and melodrama (plus a pinch of realism whenever needed!), goes for the high notes, grand gesture, sights and sounds that dazzle and inspire, showing artists, propagandists, vampires and other creatures of the dark. Filmmaking, thus, becomes visual witchcraft – 24 spells a second. What a marvel!

– Olaf Möller

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