Blizzard of Souls (2019) on Netflix
The Imperial German Army invades, and sixteen-year-old Arturs sees his mother shot and loses his home. He and his father join the Latvian Riflemen battalions to fight back.
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- Netflix3.7/5
- IMDb7.2/105,717 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes75%
Trailer
Plot summary
Arturs Vanags is sixteen when the First World War reaches his homeland. The Imperial German Army invades Latvia, his mother is shot, and his home is lost. He and his father enlist in the Latvian Riflemen battalions, the national units now permitted within the Imperial Russian Army, hoping for revenge and glory. Joining the army gives him some consolation. On the Eastern Front, Arturs finds no fairness and no glory, only brutality. The promised quick end to the war never comes, and the fighting drags on. He waits for a chance to return home, and his love story is interrupted by the war.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Blizzard of Souls (2019)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Oto Brantevics won the lead role of Artūrs in Blizzard of Souls out of 1,300 candidates, despite having no prior acting experience before the film.
- Within its first five weeks of screening, Blizzard of Souls was seen by more than 200,000 people, making it the most-watched film since the second restoration of Latvian independence in 1991.
- The film adapts Aleksandrs Grīns' novel Blizzard of Souls, which Grīns wrote about his own service as a rifleman in World War I.
- Cinematographer Valdis Celmiņš avoided wide establishing shots, drawing on Christian Berger's concept of using a wide lens for medium shots and closeups, and on László Nemes' film Son of Saul.
- Several of the battle scenes in Blizzard of Souls were shot at the locations where the historical battles had actually taken place.
