"Uļa": Kairišs and Avots film on legendary basketball player heads to the Oscars
Viesturs Kairišs' film "Uļa" about basketball star Uļjana Semjonova was selected as Latvia's Oscar submission after premiering in Cannes. Much attention centers on Kārlis Arnolds Avots' portrayal of the legendary athlete.
A film by director Viesturs Kairišs and actor Kārlis Arnolds Avots, "Uļa," has become one of this year's most notable events in Latvian cinema. Following its premiere in the Un Certain Regard section of the Cannes Film Festival, the film was also chosen as Latvia's official submission for the Academy Awards.
Most attention, however, has been drawn to Kārlis Arnolds Avots' decision to portray the legendary basketball player himself. This artistic choice has sparked discussion about whether it represents a bold experiment, a provocation, or an overly convoluted play on gender and physicality.
A story of an outstanding athlete
The film is based on the biography of Uļjana Semjonova, whose life offers rich material for any filmmaker. Born into an Old Believer family in Latgale, the unusually tall girl was discovered by sports officials and eventually joined the Riga TTT team. She went on to become a two-time Olympic champion, three-time world champion, and ten-time European champion, dominating women's basketball for years. In 1993 she became the first European basketball player inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
While such material could easily lend itself to a clichéd sports drama, Kairišs' film moves as far as possible from Hollywood aesthetics. This creates an interesting contrast with last year's film by Dzintars Dreibergs, "Tīklā. TTT leģendas dzimšana," which took the opposite approach, deliberately "Hollywood-izing" the past.
Continuing an established freedom
Compared to Kairišs' previous film "Janvāris," which stood out for its energetic form and a rebellious approach to history, "Uļa" is a slower, quieter, and in some ways more old-fashioned film. Still, the director again avoided the historical monumentality that marked his earlier work, including the film "Melānijas hronika."
