Ajyal Film Festival 2024

All Films

My Favorite War (Mans mīļākais karš)

Ajyal Competition

Ilze Burkovska - Jacobsen / Feature Documentary / Latvia, Norway / 2020 / 80 min
In English, Latvian
Interests: Animation
MENA Premiere

Synopsis

A personal, animated documentary that tells the compelling story of the director’s formative years growing up in Latvia, part of the Soviet Union from 1970 to 1990. The Cold War regime of the time famously used World War II as a vital ideological weapon to intimidate and oppress the population. However, when young Ilze discovers the remains of a German soldier in her sandbox, she begins to question the stated reality. Emboldened by the discovery, she starts digging for other stories buried deeper underneath the propaganda.
The film compassionately draws out the internal pressures of her family, contrasting her father, who earnestly served the Communist Party until his tragically premature death, with her mother, who lived under the shadow of her own father’s conviction as an official “enemy of the state.” Striking the perfect balance between stylized animated scenes, privy narration, and archival footage, ‘My Favorite War’ is a unique coming-of-age story with universal appeal about finding one’s own identity, truth, and loyalty.

Credits

Director
Ilze Burkovska - Jacobsen
Screenwriter
Ilze Burkovska - Jacobsen
Producer
Trond Jacobsen, Guntis Trekteris
Editor
Julie Vinten, Reinis Rinka
Composer
Kārlis Auzāns
Cinematographer
Andrejs Verhoustinskis, Trond Jacobsen, Mārcis Ābele
Production Company
Bivrost Film, Ego Media
Sound
Ernests Ansons
Distributor
Ego Media

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