Blizzard of Souls (2019)

Blizzard of Souls (known in its home country as Dvēseļu putenis) arrived in 2019 as something of a landmark moment for Latvian cinema. Produced by KULTFILMA and directed by Dzintars Dreibergs, the film is based on the celebrated autobiographical novel of the same name by Aleksandrs Grīns, a work that holds a significant place in Latvian literary culture. The story it tells is rooted in one of the lesser-discussed corners of the First World War: the formation and fighting of the Latvian Riflemen, national battalions permitted within the Russian Imperial Army from 1915 onwards. For Latvia, a country that spent much of the twentieth century under Soviet rule and only restored its independence in 1991, a film about that particular moment of nascent national identity carries considerable weight. This is not the Western Front of popular imagination. It is the Eastern Front, muddy and brutal in its own different ways, and largely absent from the English-language war film tradition. The film runs to 124 minutes and was, on its release, one of the most expensive Latvian productions in recent memory, a point worth noting given that Latvian cinema operates on a fraction of the resources available to Hollywood or even most Western European industries.

Dreibergs, working here on a large-scale historical production, assembled a cast drawn largely from Latvian theatre and television. The central role of young Arturs is carried by Oto Brantevics, a relatively unknown face outside Latvia at the time of release, with support from Vilis Daudziņš, Ivars Krasts, Gatis Gāga, and Martins Vilsons. The decision to cast authentically, rather than importing recognisable names from further afield, gives the film a grounded, lived-in quality that bigger co-productions sometimes sacrifice in the pursuit of international marketability. It is the kind of cast-from-home approach that can make or break a project of this ambition, and it speaks to a commitment to telling this particular story on its own terms. The film drew considerable attention across Central and Eastern Europe on release, and became Latvia's submission for the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film. Comparisons to other war films of its era are inevitable (the same year saw the release of 1917, another war film I have covered on the blog), though Blizzard of Souls occupies a rather different emotional register, less about formal bravura and more about the quiet, grinding human cost of a conflict fought on behalf of an empire that had little interest in Latvian survival.

As a piece of national cinema, the film sits in interesting company. War films that centre the experience of smaller nations, countries caught between larger powers and fighting for a homeland that the major combatants barely acknowledge, have a particular kind of moral urgency that straight heroic narratives tend to lack. That tension between duty and futility, between identity and expendability, runs through several films I have reviewed here, including Men Without Wings, another war film on the blog, and it surfaces here too. The film is polished but unshowy in its production design, the winter landscapes doing considerable work in establishing mood without ever feeling like mere scenery. Whether Dreibergs fully delivers on the promise of that setting and subject matter is, of course, the question at the heart of any review.

A-Z World Movie Tour Latvia I’ll be the first to admit, I’m not exactly a war movie obsessive. Give me Paths of Glory or Come and See, and I’m in. Hand me your average WWII tankfest with too many close-ups of Tom Hanks yelling “Hold the line!” and I’ll probably fall asleep. And when it comes to WWI, well… let’s just say I’ve never been desperate to watch another film about trench mud and doomed cavalry charges. But The Rifleman? This one got me. Based on the true story of Latvian sniper Jānis Šmits, The Rifleman is brutal, unflinching, and deeply personal. It doesn’t glorify war, it strips it down to its rawest elements: survival, loyalty, fear, and the slow erosion of innocence. The film follows Arturs, a stone-faced farmer turned rifleman who becomes one of the most feared snipers on the Eastern Front. His quiet determination, his unwavering focus, it’s chilling and compelling in equal measure. What makes this stand out from the pack isn’t just the cinematography (which is stunning, snow-covered forests, stark winter skies, the eerie silence before a shot cracks through the cold air), but the emotional restraint. There’s no grand speechifying, no melodramatic deathbed soliloquies. Just men in the dirt, trying to survive. It’s also a powerful piece of Latvian identity, a country caught between empires, forced into a war that wasn’t theirs, yet fought for anyway. That tension pulses beneath every scene: who are they really fighting for? And what will be left when it’s over? As someone who usually prefers my war films to be more anti-war than heroic glory, this hit right in the gut. It’s not perfect, some scenes feel rushed, and the pacing drags slightly in the final act, but as a piece of national cinema and a testament to endurance, it’s exceptional.

For me, that tension between national pride and anti-war sentiment is exactly where the film finds its strongest footing, and it is rare to see a war film trust its audience enough to sit with that ambiguity rather than resolve it neatly. I found myself thinking about it for longer than I expected, which is usually the surest sign that something has done its job properly. If you have been working your way through world cinema and have not yet given Latvian film much of a look, this is a reasonable place to start, though I would suggest going in with a clear afternoon ahead of you. Some films earn their two hours. This one very nearly does.

Rating: ★★★½  | Year: 2019  | Watched: 2025-07-08

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Trailer

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