Herz Frank film retrospective  

Restricted Area

In the forbidden zone, at the same time a penal colony and a bridewell, children and youngsters,
who have made themselves punishable by law because of one or more crimes are being re-educated. Herz Frank analyses the contradictions between the pretentions of such an institute and the actual situations and results as they present themselves inside the working camp.

Noon

The workers gather to celebrate their free time during the lunch break. The close-ups of faces show the expressions of various human emotions from joy to anxiety, merely listening to some kind of vulgar jokes. After the festive noon, the feeling of emptiness remains.

Life

The film tells a story about the life of the chairman of a collective farm. Despite the challenges he
had to face during the time of collectivization, he gain what is the most important for one’s life - the
love of people.

Herz Frank

One of the most famous documentary filmmakers of Latvia who at the beginning of 1960 was
among the first to establish the so-called Riga poetic documentary school – the Latvian “new
wave”. He was born in Latvia, in 1926, studied law in Moscow. Worked as a journalist, lecturer and
advertisement designer. Since 1965, Herz Frank works solely as a film director. Frank’s
filmography includes more than 80 films, many of which have justly been included in the golden
funds of Latvian film history. During his life Herz Frank has received Life contribution award in
cinema, among which is also the recognition by the Latvian National film festival (2001). Herz
Frank died in Israel, in 2013.

Selected Filmography

Noon, 1965
235 000 000 , 1967
Your Pay-day, 1971
Life, 1972
Diagnosis, 1975
Restricted Area, 1975
10 Minutes Older, 1978
Edgar Kaulin’s Lats Birthday, 1980
The Last Judgement, 1987
The Song of Songs, 1989
There Were Seven Simeons, 1989
Jewish Street, 1992
The Man of the Wall, 1998
Flashback, 2002
Perpetual Rehearsal, 2009
After, 2009
Beyond the Fear, 2014