Kairiss' feature film Ulya included in competition program of Cannes Festival

RIGA - Ulya, a feature film directed by Viesturs Kairiss with actor Karlis Arnolds Avots in the lead role, has been selected for the Un Certain Regard program of this year's Cannes Film Festival, LETA was told at the Latvian National Film Center.

The lineup of the program was announced at a news conference on the films selected for the main competitions of the Cannes Film Festival. Un Certain Regard is one of the two official competition programs of the Cannes Film Festival.

Ulya is based on the life story of Latvian basketball star Uljana Semjonova. Actor Avots conceived the idea to tell the story of Uljana's (Ulya) teenage years, the girl's search for her true identity, and her rise to basketball stardom.

Dita Rietuma, head of the National Film Center, said that the Latvian film has managed to enter the official program of the world's most important film festival. She stressed that the original and conceptual feature film has managed to outperform thousands of other entries submitted to the Cannes Film Festival from around the world.

Rietuma mentioned that the film is a co-production between the three Baltic states and Poland, with significant creative as well as financial contributions from each country. In her opinion, Ulya will go down in Latvian film history as an international achievement of its creative team - director Kairiss, the author of the film's idea and lead actor Avots, and producer Guntis Trekteris.