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These Stars Are on the Rise

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Valters, a twentysomething aspiring seaman from a gritty Riga suburb, struggles with becoming an adult. Hot summer days are spent carelessly drinking and reveling in fleeting amusements with his close friends. As another semester approaches time slips by and his dearest relationships deteriorate. He loses interest in his love Betty, and barely sees his friends, seeking meaning in an intoxicating whirlpool of routine and excess.

After a shallow conversation with his supposed best friend Sasha, he questions whether long days spent in the marine academy are even worth his time. No one there really cares about him. He daydreams about his teacher becoming a mermaid and seducing him, becoming a naval captain, and being a free spirit in the seas. Only to discover the rough reality of the industry upon taking up his first merchant navy contract. The monotony and the virile nature of the sea deprive him of the affection.

Upon finishing his first contract Valters dives straight into pleasure ignoring the sweltering pain of long-repressed emotions from his unsolved relationships. He meets Kate, an adventurous spirit taking him on a psychedelic and erotic one-night stand. Unfortunately, that culminates in the same grey reality Valters tried to escape. After a welcoming embrace of some comfort food at the place he and Betty used to visit, he returns home. Walking through the empty walls reminds him of the love and sweet everydayness that slipped through his careless hands. Not yet ready to confront his past choices he returns to the sea.

 A coming-of-age story inspired by and featuring the music from Bel Tempo's album Pessimismus.

Karlis Arnolds Avots in A Dog's Gaze (2023)

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A Dog's Gaze

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