Kapitalisms Skersiela (2013)

	Also Known As: Capitalism at Crossroad Street, Kapitalismus an der Crossroad Street
	Year of first release: 2013
	Director: Ivars Seleckis
	Actors: -
	Country: LV
	Genre: Documentary
	Conditions of visioning: 31.10.2014, CineStar6, NFDL2014, Latvian with English subtitles
Synopsis: Crossroad Street is like a small village in the middle of Riga. People know each other and they stick together. In this film, director Ivars Seleckis drops in on the odd residents for the third time. He has documented the lives of these simple people twice before; first at the end of the 1980s after the dissolution of the USSR and then at the end of the 1990s, after Latvia regained its independence, both times of change. The changes visible on Crossroad Street this time are a consequence of the financial crisis. We visit single mother Daiga, who barely makes ends meet, and mortician Aldis, who believes the apocalypse is coming and lost his Jacuzzi in the wake of bankruptcy. Seleckis lets a bit of irony shine through with his Crossroaders, as they reflect on their lives in uncertain times in short sequences combined with sequences from the past, which highlight the changes, but also much that has remained constant.
Review: The movie has been shot over three years in order to get enough peaks that are shown starting in Spring and ending in Winter. This is the daily life of the street inhabitants. Seleckis did already a similar documentary about the same street in the 80s and in the 90s. There is a birthday, the holidays of the son living in England, supper with a couple of homeless, a party. We see also how the people try to get enough income for those, the most, who do not have much. Collecting metals, selling the family belongings on the market. One has almost been married to an Italian but the egalitarian culture inherited from the Soviet times clashed against the traditional patriarchal Italian culture. This is an important point as I discussed afterwards with people from East Germany. They told me that it is the same in Eastern Germany, where women went to work. Since the reunification, they see that in Western Germany, the society is much more patriarchal. It is chocking and they are right! There is actually no point of view on the capitalism as the title could suggest. It is a picture of this microsociety. With indeed consequences of the capitalism or better said of the globalisation like having low salary, be forced to move far away from the family, know foreign people.
Rating: 5 /10