OLEGS

Latvia, Lithuania, Belgium, France

Synopsis

Belgium, today: Oleg is a young Latvian butcher. He arrives in Brussels in the hope of getting a better salary in a meat factory.
His experience turns short after being betrayed by a colleague.
Alone in a country where he doesn’t belong, he quickly falls under the yoke of Andrzej, a Polish criminal …

Director's Statement

OLEG is a man’s initiation into manhood. Looking from this perspective, it is very easy to understand the initial intention of Oleg’s actions, i.e. to go abroad alone and accept his financial abilities and personal weaknesses. In modern society, the question of initiation into manhood becomes increasingly important – men in their thirties are still lacking decisiveness. Oleg also portrays modern day slavery in the very heart of Europe – Brussels. Forced by various circumstances, people have to go to other countries to work in order to earn a livelihood, but the huge impersonal mechanism gives rise to the possibility of being exposed to inhuman conditions. Whatever Oleg’s character may be, no one deserves to end up under the physical and psychological terror that Andrzej uses on him.

Director's Biography

Juris Kursietis (1983) worked for six years on Latvian national television as an international journalist. After a Master’s degree in Cinema from the Northern Media School in the UK, he became an assistant director on a number of Latvian movies.
He directed his first feature-length film MODRIS, between 2012 and 2013.

Filmography:
2019 - OLEG
2014 - MODRIS
2008 - WILL HAVE IT TOMORROW, short
2007 - THE BICYCLE STORY, short
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Cast & Crew

Directed by: Juris Kursietis

Written by: Juris Kursietis, Kaspars Odins, Liga Celma-Kursiete

Produced by: Lukas Trimonis, Isabelle Truc, Guillaume de Seille, Alise Gelze, Aija Berzina

Cinematography: Bogumil Godfrejow

Editing: Matyas Veress

Production Design: Laura Dislere

Costume Design: Inese Kalva

Make-Up & Hair: Maija Gundare

Sound: Vytis Puronas

Visual Effects: Vytautas Kazlauskas

Cast: Valentin Novopolskij (Oleg), Dawid Ogrodnik (Andrzej), Anna Próchniak (Malgosia), Adam Szyszkowski (Krzysztof), Guna Zarina (Zita)

Nominations and Awards

  • Feature Film Selection 2019