TESA MAN [a music film]
Riga IFF 2024 opening film / Black Nights film festival 2024 - international premiere
A poetic exploration of the relationship between collective creativity and the natural world. Bluring the lines between reality and imagination it invites into an animistic experience where music performed by the band Tesa in a frozen Baltic landscape attempts to transform air, steam, ash and clay into something much more alive.
TESA MAN [trailer]
"A silent film of a post-metal band performing in the middle of nowhere Latvia as some mysterious woman emerges, through the musical ritual, from nothing into something marvellous. It might be a mistake to call Tesa Man a silent film, though, since the notes and rifts of Tesa, a Latvian instrumental post-metal band, somehow speak. It even took me a few minutes to notice that the feelings the film was generating within me were completely driven by the combination of the images and the music with no dialogue, or really even characters, to contribute."
TESA MAN [behind-the-scenes]
"During an era where most films are far too long, Tesa Man is a work that I would have loved to have been twice as long as it is. How often can you say that about a film, nowadays?"
Christer Emmanuelson for dissaprovingswede.com
________________________________________________________
Director & writer: Uģis Olte / Composer & performer: TESA / Scenographer: Andris Eglītis
Cast: Andris Eglītis, Dace Eversa, Dārta Cīrule, Elizabete Milta, Agate Marija Bukša, Klāvs Mellis, Kitija Geidāne
Cinematographer: Jānis Šēnbergs / Camera: Aleksandrs Okonovs, Andrejs Strokins, Baiba Kļava, Dainis Kļava, Mārcis Ābele, Uldis Cekulis, Valdis Celmiņš, Ansis Landorfs, Ingus Iļjučonoks.
Sound design & mix: Artis Lūsis, TESA, Ģirts Laumanis / Choreographer: Eva Krūmiņa / Makeup artist: Maija Gundare
Producers: Annija Korpa, Paula Jansone, Līva Vernere, Uldis Cekulis, Henriks Eliass Zēgners
© 2025 Uģis Olte
All rights reserved.