Latvian Cinema Clichés: 122 Films and Censorship in Soviet Times

During the Soviet occupation, 122 feature films were produced at the Riga Film Studio. Almost a third of them – 42 films – were commissioned by the Central Television of the USSR. They were shot in Russian or dubbed into Russian, and watched by millions of viewers across the Soviet Union. The content of these films was under particularly strict control and censorship by the Soviet nomenklatura. In an interview, film critic Daira Āboliņa-Ilješāne reveals the clichéd images and stereotypes that prevailed in Soviet Latvian cinema – for instance, Latvian women were often portrayed as blondes, reserved but friendly.