Covered with laurels for his recent series “Soviet Jeans” (audience award at Series Mania 2024) and for his features “Modris” (Latvia’s Oscar submission 2014) and “Oleg” (Cannes Director’s Fortnight entry 2019), Latvian writer/director Juris Kursietis is competing at Tallinn’s Black Nights Film Festival’s Official Selection with “The Exalted,” due to world premiere Nov. 14.
The satire about cultural clashes between Eastern and Western Europe, seen through the prism of an upper-class couple, has just been acquired by newly launched French sales outfit B-Rated International, outside the co-producing countries Estonia, Latvia, and Greece.
“The Exalted” offers a harsh and cynical portrayal of the upper class,” said Arnaud Chevallier, formerly at Mediawan International Sales and founder of the Paris-based outfit. “We admire the pic’s brilliant and subtle directing and are convinced that it will resonate with foreign audiences due to its globally relevant themes and multiple languages spoken throughout the film.”
Kursietis says “The Exalted” offers food for thought about the differences between the smaller Baltic countries and Western Europe, the perception we have of each other. If you come from our region, there’s no chance you haven’t experienced discrimination in a European context. In a way, we’re still considered as the black sheep in the family,” he says.
The subject is explored through the story of Anna, a German world-renowned organ soloist, and her husband Andris, a Latvian businessman. The couple’s lives take a dramatic turn when anti-corruption police forces arrest Andris under suspicion of bribery. Anna’s meticulously curated life and their prosperous family are suddenly torn to pieces, while “the deepening contrast in their perspectives on corruption, shaped by their Western and Eastern backgrounds, soon intensifies, jeopardizing the core of Anna and Andris’ relationship,” reads the logline.
Next to the lead actors Johanna Wokalek (“Spy City,” “The Baader Meinhof Complex”) and Juris Žagars (“Troubled Minds,” “The Dark Deer”), the international cast takes in Judith Hofmann (“The Innocent”), Hanna Hilsdorf (“In the Fade,” “The Empress”), Yorgos Pirpassopoulos (“Chevalier”) and Pekka Strang (“Tom of Finland”).
Pedigreed heads of departments include Oscar-nominated editor Yorgos Mavropsaridis (“Poor Things,” “The Favourite”), DOP Bogumil Godfreijów (“A Man Thing,” “Modris”) and Estonian costume designer Jaanus Vahtra (“Compartment Nr.6”).
Kursietis, who shares the writing credit with his wife and “Oleg” co-writer Liga Celma-Kursiete, says he first had the idea for the pic about six or seven years ago, when a series of high-profile corruption scandals made headlines in Latvia, involving stately-run corporations.
“I wasn’t interested in digging into the cases, but in the impact of such scandals on the families. Did they know or suspect anything? How do you cope when you suddenly lose control? That started to fuel my interest. Then war in Ukraine made the topic all the more relevant,” says Kursietis. “What happens when you’re in a safe world and your life is suddenly under threat? How do you adapt?
The second trigger for the story was a discussion he had with his regular DoP Godfreijów. “Both ‘Modris’ and ‘Oleg’ explored marginalized groups in our society. With this film, we felt we could expand the topic by focusing on the upper class, the power players who sometimes use their position for political and financial reasons, making the underprivileged pay for their games. This film is, therefore, a kind of loose third installment in a trilogy as I used similar filmic acting techniques based on improvisation and organic camera work,” says Kursietis.
A third theme that the helmer was keen to examine was art versus money and inherent ethical issues when the money is dirty or toxic. “As an artist, should you care about where the money comes from? Since Ukraine’s Russian invasion, we in Europe have started to consider Russian money as toxic. That doesn’t prevent some European companies from selling their films to Russian distributors, and that’s blood money coming into Europe,” says the infuriated Kursietis.
“I was therefore interested in exploring art’s relationship to money through Anna, the organist and classical music pop star, and her husband Andris, an established businessman.”
To prepare for her part, Wokalek, who already played the piano, trained for six months with the celebrated Latvian organist Iveta Apkalna. Due to budget constraints, the pic produced by the seasoned Alise Gelze for White Picture (“Oleg,” “Mother I Love You”) was shot entirely in Latvia in only 19 days. “We had set our budget in 2019; then came COVID, and then war in Ukraine, which means we had four years of inflation at around 30%. It was tough, but Alise fought fiercely to raise the money. We couldn’t involve German co-producers, so we partnered with Estonia’s Stellar Film and Greece’s Asterisk, with whom we’d worked on “Modris,” Kursietis explains.
Next up for the former Latvian Television international journalist is a feature film about a family with a daughter with Down Syndrome fighting the system. “It will be a very personal story as I have a brother with Down Syndrome,” says the helmer, who plans to start filming in the fall of 2025.
