Marijas klusums

1937. The passengers on the train are preparing for the border crossing, actress Maria Leiko among them. She has been summoned to the USSR by high-ranking secret police officer Jēkabs Peterss in order to bid farewell to her daughter in the morgue – and to learn that she died in childbirth. The grandchild is healthy; Maria wants to take care of her and stays in Moscow, where she works with Asja Lācis at the Latvian Skatuve Theatre. But in reality, she’s playing another role entirely, unwittingly: that of an innocent victim ensnared by Stalinist terror. (Festival information, Berlinale 2024)