The Chronicles of Melanie

Directed by Viesturs Kairišs
Viesturs Kairišs
Corinth Films
2016
120 Minutes
Latvia
Latvian, Russian, German
Drama
Theatrical booking
Erin Farrell
erin@filmmovement.com
Festival and non-theatrical booking
Erin Farrell
erin@filmmovement.com
Materials and print traffic
Erin Farrell
erin@filmmovement.com

Synopsis

Based on the memoirs of Melānija Vanaga, Chronicles of Melanie is a terrifying account of the mass deportation of residents of Soviet-occupied Latvia that occurred in June of 1941 as Stalin tightened his grip on power. Melanie, one of over 17,000 people deported to Siberia under suspicion of “collaborating with the enemy”, is forcibly separated from her husband Aleksandrs shortly after Soviet troops barge into her home at gunpoint and force her, Aleksandrs and their son Andrejs into a lorry to be transported to awaiting cattle cars. The journey to Siberia lasts 3 weeks aboard the cattle cars, during which a diet of scraps of bread, dirty water and no bathrooms are just the beginning of a long and brutal exile.