International Competition

Pelican in the Desert is a story about a country within a country, about Latgale which marks the furthest eastern border of the European Union. Sometimes it resembles an island surrounded by waters, but at others a desert with a snowbound coffin with rescued mankind. The greatest spiritual tension in Latvia prevails there – this is a Catholic region, full of Orthodox believers, old-believers and ruined Jewish temples. Latgale disappears into its own special way of existence that has made it a detached and magic place for centuries. At the same time, the film is a portrait of a land made up of people, life’s spiritual and physical extremism, and a quite Christian resurrection.