In her conflict with the totalitarian regime, Astra, an ambitious doctor, loses literally everything: her career, her will to live, even her maternal instinct to nurse her own baby. Daughter Nora nevertheless becomes Astra’s greatest support, and in the process she learns to survive even in the repressive system of the Soviet regime. Together with her intersexual friend, Jesse, Nora helps Astra fight her depression.

Cast

Astra
Maija Doveika
Nora
Rūta Kronberga
Astra,young
Elīna Vaska-Botere
Mātes Piens - Poster 1

Soviet Milk

Ināra Kolmane

  • Fiction
Production Country / Year
Latvia, Belgium 2023
Language
lv., ru. OF mit en. UT
Format
DCP, Color, 112min
2.39:1, Discrete 5.1
Original Title
Mātes Piens

Director & Crew

Marta Mannenbach 1

Ināra Kolmane

Born in 1961 in  Riga/Latvia. Studied at the St. Petersburg Film Academy. Active as a director.

Filmography

2001, POCO A POCO…LITTLE BY LITTLE, Dokumentarfilm

FROSTY FLOWERS, Kurzfilm

2002, A WORLD APART, Dokumentarfilm

2006, MY HUSBAND ANDREI SAKHAROV, Dokumentarfilm

2009, NUDE, Dokumentarfilm

2010, CONTROVERSIAL HISTORY, Dokumentarfilm

2012, AGE OF DELIRIUM, Dokumentarfilm

MONA, Spielfilm

2015, RUCH AND NORIE, Dokumentarfilm 2018, DOUBLE LIFE. SEX IN THE USSR, Dokumentarfilm

BILLE, Spielfilm

2023 SOVIET MILK, Spielfilm  HOF 2023

“The story reveals in a deeply compassionate way how human nature collides with the totalitarian Soviet regime. [...] My film concept is based on the reflection of interpersonal and social relations as well as historical processes, which are revealed through the lives and viewpoints of two women. By tracing how the restrictions and contradictions of a totalitarian regime shape people's lives and actions, the (im)possibility of personality development under this regime becomes clear.

These motifs are reflected throughout the film; they form its ideological framework and thematize the conflict between the human desire for free self-realization and development and the tendency of the ruling political regime’s omnipresent control.

The film consists of two chapters, each showing a different point of view – the mother’s and the daughter’s. In this way, it is easy to see the absurd Soviet system and the fates of the people through the eyes of an adult who has lost her ideals, but at the same time from the perspective of a child. Each chapter contains events from different periods of time, showing, on the one hand, the mother's powerlessness as an individual in the face of the regime and, on the other hand, the story of a growing child with her faith in the future.”

Ināra Kolmane

Writer
Arvis Kolmanis
Director of Photography
Rolandas Leonavičius
Editor
Michal Lansky
Sound
Arturas Pugačiauskas
Music Composer
Raimonds Tiguls
Producer
Jānis Juhņēvičs
Cloé Garbay