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A naïve teenager comes of age amid the carnage of World War I’s Eastern Front in this propulsive adaptation of Aleksandrs Grins’ 1934 patriotic classic “Blizzard of Souls.” With its muscular direction by former documentarian Dzintars Dreibergs, atmospheric cinematography and careful attention to period detail, this account of a troop of Latvian Riflemen fighting first for the Russian Imperial Army against invading German forces and then for an independent Latvia should appeal to WWI buffs and fans of Sam Mendes’ “1917.” While not quite in the same league as Liviu Ciulei’s “Forest of the Hanged” or Stanley Kubrick’s “Paths of Glory,” Latvia’s Oscar submission — which set box office records in its native country — does contain a strong message about the futility of war.

After German forces kill his mother on the family farm, the not-quite-17-year-old schoolboy Arturs and his aging father (Martins Vilsons), a sharp-shooting former sergeant,...

This trench-warfare tale is its country’s biggest box-office success, but it is guilty of some bad misfires

The Rifleman is the top-grossing film of all time at the Latvian box office and if you had to guess at the kind of film that would inspire such nationwide enthusiasm, you’d guess it was something like this: a lavishly mounted, lion-hearted first world war epic based on a book banned by the Soviets for 60 years.

Oto Brantevics stars as Arturs, a 16-year-old who signs up in 1915 to fight the Germans, alongside his brother Edgars (Raimonds Celms) and father Vanags (Martins Vilsons). Both Arturs and his dad are outside the required age range for the army, but rules are bent on account of the father’s exceptional marksmanship. Thus, three men of the same family set off to war, fighting sometimes for the Tsar, sometimes for the Red Army – but always,...

"We'll come back soon." Parkland Ent. has released the official UK trailer for a World War I drama titled The Rifleman, from Latvian filmmaker Dzintars Dreibergs. This film also has the title Blizzard of Souls, and its adapted from a book which was originally banned in the Ussr; a story based on Aleksandrs Grins' own war experiences figghting in a Latvian battalion. A sixteen-year-old boy named Arturs enlists to fight in First World War as one of the first national battalions of Latvia, with dreams of becoming a hero. After surviving the brutalities of trench warfare and the loss of his family, he wonders if his efforts in battle were futile and if hope is only to be found in rebuilding a family and a home as Latvia itself is (re)born from the atrocities of war. Starring Oto Brantevics as Arturs, along with Raimonds Celms, Martins Vilsons, Jekabs Reinis,...