A POSTCARD FROM ROME
In-Person Screening: Friday, November 8, 6 pm
Director Elza Gauja will present a Q&A following the screening.
Virtual Screenings: November 9-17
A POSTCARD FROM ROME (Pastkarte no Romas)
Elza Gauja, 88 min, Latvia 2024
In Latvian and Italian with English subtitles
North American Premiere
See the gentle love story A Postcard From Rome (Pastkarte no Romas, dir. Elza Gauja, Latvia, 2024). Latvian couple Ernests and Alvīne discover they can take advantage of a lottery scheme to fulfill their lifelong dream of traveling to Rome. As they embark on their international holiday, it becomes clear that Alvīne's Alzheimer's disease is rapidly progressing – a reality that neither party is ready to face. Director Elza Gauja handles this heavy subject matter with a light touch, focusing on the conspiratorial banter and bickering of the central couple, whose relationship is defined by decades-long devotion. Latvia and Rome are photographed with cozy warmth and vivid detail in a funny and tender drama praised as “a poignant story… a magical micro-reality where one can actually win the lottery” (Cineuropa).
Festival & Awards History
Best Feature at the 2024 Latvian National Film Awards 'Lielais Kristaps'
Selected for Europe! Voices of Women in Film at the 71st Sydney Film Festival
Director bio:
Elza Gauja completed her master’s in film directing and is now pursuing a doctoral degree. Her diploma feature film, A Postcard from Rome (2024), won Best Feature at the Latvian National Film Awards ‘Lielais Kristaps’ and gathered more than 20,000 viewers across 200 cinemas in Latvia. The film was also selected for the Europe! Voices of Women in Film program at the Sydney Film Festival. In 2022, Elza released her debut fiction film Keep Smiling, Mom! and her debut feature documentary Meanwhile in Lucavsala, which won the Best Debut Prize at the Latvian National Film Awards ‘Lielais Kristaps’. She has also directed several short films that screened at short film festivals.