896880
896880

Valiant!

"A Car, A Cause, And The Cold War"

2021-11-18 lv 73m
Documentary
Feature documentary on the antics of North American Latvian youth in the 1980s, during the last years of the Cold War – from chaining themselves to the Russian Embassy, to organizing an entire cruise ship treading the Soviet border in the Baltic Sea – generating headlines when few could even find Latvia on a map. The main hero is Juris Bļodnieks’ old Chrysler Valiant “Slant Six” that has been in storage for 25 years: painted with anti-Soviet slogans such as “Nyet, nyet Soviet!” and “Go(rbachev) to hell!”. A generation of US Latvians remembers the car appearing in demonstrations across North America. Day to day, while driving around his home state of New Jersey, Juris used the car to further the seemingly hopeless task – to free an illegally occupied Latvia.

Director

Māra Pelēce

Editor

Dita Gruze

Sound Director

Reid Kruger

Writer

Māra Pelēce

Producer

Marianna Auliciema

Director of Photography

Māra Pelēce

Status

Released

Countries

  • Latvia

Companies

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