UPURGA [feature film]
Black Nights film festival 2021 - international premiere / Night Visions 2022 / Fantaspoa 2022 and others
Andrejs is an adventure guide who is afraid of real adventures. But that’s what he gets when his sister, an influencer, goes missing in the valley of a wild river,together with a vegan-sausage advertising crew. Facing ancient forces of nature, Andrejs’ deepest anxieties awaken as he engages in a futile search that pushes his body and mind to the extreme. During his journey, the young man will meet locals such as a silent cabbage fermenter and a weird brotherhood of hunters who speak a language totally of their own. They are the protectors of a wondrous natural phenomena, haunting and beautiful at the same time. Andrejs doesn’t know that every path in this strange forest leads exactly to the
thing you are looking for - but to find it, you must first get lost.
UPURGA [trailer]
"Upurga shirks conventional and contemporary storytelling with abrupt jumps and cuts in the timeline, dropping in confrontations with a host of odd characters, and bolstering itself with equally mysterious and striking visual oddities. Oddities such as the shot of a man, naked, playing a fiddle on a tree laying over the river. You know, standard imagery."
"This is a smart, eloquent, and thoroughly unnerving celebration of folk horror. One that revitalizes the tropes it smartly sidesteps. The feature debut from documentarian Ugis Olte is a haunting journey into the familiar that reveals itself far deeper than first expected."
UPURGA [behind-the-scenes]
"Survival, obsession, and acid trips, as well as the hardships caused by living near a seemingly magical river, are the main themes of Upurga. Past and present intertwine and people who disappeared near the river come back as muted shadows of their former selves, driven to do only one thing and do it well, whether it’s playing the violin or becoming a forest shaman."
Mihail Baltateanu for grimoireofhorror.com
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Listen to the original soundtrack for the film by composer Reinis Sējāns on SPOTIFY / APPLE MUSIC
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![Upurga_Andrejs_Kayak [key_visual]](https://i0.wp.com/ugisolte.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/Upurga_Andrejs_Kayak-key_visual.png?fit=5112%2C2138&ssl=1)
Writer & director: Ugis Olte
Co-writers: Bojana Babic & Lucas Abrahão
Cinematographer: Valdis Celmins
Production designers: Janis Kalnins, Lasma Olte
Sound designer & mixer: Artis Dukalskis
Composer: Reinis Sejans
Editor: Gatis Belogrudovs
Costume designer: Jurate Silakaktina
Makeup artist: Maija Gundare
Visual effects: Nauris Asenkampfs, Aigars Gercans, Ugis Olte
Main cast: Igors Selegovskis, Inga Tropa, Rihards Sniegs,
Elvita Ragovska, Reinis Boters, Morten Traavik
Producers: Uldis Cekulis, Raitis Abele
Production company: VFS Films
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