Latvia
HOSTAGE
(KILNIEKS)
2006, Lalia Pakalnina, Latvia, 74 min.
With Branko Zavrsan, Kristaps Mednis
A world-weary hijacker forces an airliner to land in Riga, where he releases all the passengers but Tom, a bold eight-year-old. Pakalnina’s absurd allegory on national identity has Tom adding his own request for chocolates to the hijacker’s demand for $30 million, while a sequence of possibly unrelated scofflaw events play out just beyond the airport. In English and Latvian with English subtitles. Beta SP video courtesy of the National Film Centre of Latvia. (BS)