Overview

The 20th Latvian Song and Dance Festival was the first in which compatriots from all corners of the world gathered in a free Latvia, including those who had gone into exile in the West and those who had been forcibly deported to Siberia. Director Dzintra Geka also brings together those who were unable to return to their homeland – footage for the film was shot in Sweden, at the 6th European Latvian Song Festival in Norrköping, where Latvian Minister of Justice Laila Freivalde, who is of Latvian descent, marches alongside her compatriots, and in Siberia, in the village of Lejas Bulāna, where Latvian women sing "...because this is Latvia, this is Bulāna...". The older generation of Canadian Latvians also dance at the festival with the Dardedze dance group from Toronto, while Mārtiņš Brauns prepares his song Saule, Pērkons, Daugava (Sun, Thunder, Daugava) for the choir.

1. Dzintra Geka-Vaska

   Director, Writer