Upurjērs / Sacrificial Lamb

Sacrificial Lamb / Upurjērs [short fiction]

In this allegory about paradise lost, Ildze yearns to find peace and fulfilment by moving from the city to the countryside. However, her thoughts are consumed by the illness of her child, her estrangement from her husband and his absence. In the meantime, Ildze’s grief is enveloped by nature’s promise of comfort, which never arrives. She tries to understand where to find the beginning of the cycle of sacrifice and where to find its end. And who is her victim, or is it herself?

[trailer]

"After his critically and professionally acclaimed debut feature Upurga (2021), Uģis Olte continues to forge his own path in the folk-horror genre, this time in short form, looking at a traditional family’s weak spots and gender roles. In his many years of directing film, television and music videos, Olte has often chosen nature as one of the protagonists of his work — it is an autonomous protagonist in his films, not merely a visual or a functional setting; nature seems to have a slightly pantheistic, slightly primordial and tonally mystical quality."

Dārta Ceriņa, film critic

________________________________________________________