Andris Gauja’s drama about relationships “Nothing Can Stop Us Now” has received a prize at the Salerno International Film Festival. The Salerno Festival, established in 1946, is the second oldest film festival in Italy after the Venice International Film Festival. According to the film’s producers, this is the first time that Latvia has been represented there.
Published: 29.12.2020.
This year, the tradition-rich Salerno festival took place for the 74th time and was presented online for the first time in its history; Andris Gauja’s feature film Nothing Can Stop Us Now took out the prize in the feature-length film competition programme. As travel restrictions prevented the film’s representatives from taking part in the festival, the award statuette is making its way to Latvia now by post.
The film Nothing Can Stop Us Now, produced by RIVERBED Studios, has arrived on the international circuit despite the pandemic. The studio signed a contract with international film distributor Antidote Sales, founded by well-known Russian cinema critic and festival curator Anton Mazurov. The film has also just been presented on the Ventana Sur Argentinian film market. The distributor has also commenced negotiations with a range of foreign television channels.
Andris Keišs plays the central role of Ralfs, a dominating music producer in the film, Nothing Can Stop Us Now. Due to his stubborn nature, his wife (played by Kristīne Nevarauska) and his lover (Elza Gauja) are forced to live under the same roof, joined by his twelve-year-old daughter (Dārta Stepanova). The experiment transforms into a pitiless battle, each with their own interests in mind. The film has elicited equivocal reactions from both critics, as well as in viewer responses.
The film, Nothing Can Stop Us Now, has an amplitude of visual quality, unusual for Latvian cinema – nearly all of the film world has been created anew, with artist Jurģis Krāsons’ team having constructed two double-storey pavilions. All outside scenes were filmed in the evening, at night or in the early morning to impart a special magical atmosphere to the film. A total of 46 sunrises or sunsets appear in the film.
The film received nine nominations in eight categories at the Lielais Kristaps National Film Awards: Best Feature Film, Best Actor (Andris Keišs), Best Actress (Kristīne Nevarauska and Elza Gauja), Best Director of Photography (Aleksandrs Grebņevs), Best Production Designer (Jurģis Krāsons), Best Costume Designer (Līga Krāsone), Best Composer (Gatis Ziema and Andris Gauja), and Best Sound Director (Jevgenijs Kobzevs).
The big screen distributors in Latvia are UzKino and the Latvian Filmmakers Union. The film’s main supporters were – the National Film Centre of Latvia, the State Culture Capital Foundation, Helio, PATA Timber, UPB, Latvijas Finieris, Samsung, Circle-K, SIXT, TVNET, TV24, Rīgas Viļņi, Radio SWH, Latvian Television and many others.