Stylized as silent cinema, the film connects political and philosophical extremes of 1913 in a story of a young man participating at the creation of a new world. This mysterious adventurer, who was known as Peter the Lett, gets involved in a tragicomic and surreal race from a routine clerk job and a romantic passion in Riga to preparation of the world revolution in Vienna, psychoanalysis at Freud’s salon and seduction of Mata Hari in Paris.

The Year Before the War

Alicija (33), a Polish-born liberal free-thinker, joins the Awakening movement in occupied Latvia. Her newlywed husband Ilgvars (53), a man with the experience of another generation, calls her to be more careful and cautious. With the support of a close friend, the poet Normunds (40), Alicija soon comes to the forefront of the Singing Revolution. However, alongside the first success, difficulties appear – Alicija receives an anonymous letter accusing Ilgvars of being a former KGB informant. His ambiguous answer leads to her wanting to find out the truth. Realizing that her husband’s actions in the KGB have affected the fate of her close friend, Alicija faces an unenviable choice. Torn by internal contradictions, she continues her work to restore the country’s independence, unable to find courage to resolve the situation. Alicija buries herself in her work and the emotional connection with her husband gradually fades away.