The Brazen
Helēna and her family – husband Rihards, son Ēriks and daughter Maija – are driving to her entomologist father’s summer cottage, where she hasn’t been since childhood. Rihards (a lecturer and psychotherapist), has promised to help his wife renovate the house so she can hold dance classes there and restart her career as a choreographer. The family is going not only to start a battle against the insects at the house, but a war with each other.
Premiered at last year's PÖFF's Baltic Film Competition, The Brazen won four prizes (including Best Director) at the Latvian Film Awards on 4 February. Aik Karapetian will also be presenting the film at HÕFF.
Aik Karapetian (1983) was born in Armenia but grew up and went to school in Latvia. He graduated in direction from the Latvian Academy of Culture, subsequently taking a degree from the Académie Internationale des Arts ESEC in Paris. He has worked on a number of short films as a director and screenwriter and presented them at numerous film festivals. In 2011 he directed a production of Rossini’s "The Barber of Seville" for the Latvian National Opera, which took the award for best performance of the season. His feature debut "People Out There" was shown at many festivals and screened at PÖFF. His following films have also found their way into the PÖFF programme. The last time Karapetian presented his film in Estonia was at the Haapsalu Horror and Fantasy Film Festival (HÕFF) in 2022 when his black comedy "Samuel's Travels" was screened.
Filmography:
Cilveki tur (Inimesed kusagil, PÖFF 2012), The Man in the Orange Jacket (Mees oranžis jakis, PÖFF 2014), Pirmdzimtais (Firstborn, 2017), Samuel's Travels (Samueli rännakud, 2021, HÕFF 2022), The Brazen (2023)