The documentary detective film “The Last Will” by director Jānis Ābele and screenwriter Jānis Joņevs will have its world premiere in the competition program of the Riga International Film Festival (Riga IFF), a story about the last wishes of Latvian crime novelist and poet Anatols Imermanis (1914–1998).
The film is an exciting adventure featuring one of the strangest posthumous wishes ever expressed. Contemporary poet Aleksandrs Zapoļs (known as Semjons Haņins) searches for the lost urn of his long-deceased colleague Anatols Imermanis in order to fulfill the poet’s last wish – to be scattered in the red-light district of Paris so that he would always be in the company of beautiful girls. But, as it turns out, over time, the urn has disappeared without a trace.
Twenty years after his death, the poet himself becomes the center of a detective story – Anatols rises from the dead and draws us into his last adventure. This is the beginning of Anatols Imermanis’ last detective story.
Screenwriter Jānis Joņevs describes Anatols Imermanis as a man full of contradictions: “Imermanis is a poet and detective story writer. Persecuted by the Soviet regime, but not broken by it. A dissident-bohemian and a legend maker. Crazy about women, but died alone. Once famous, now forgotten.”
Director Jānis Ābele says: “We tried to understand who Anatols Imermanis was. A dissident or a free thinker? A dandy or a pervert? His peers call Imermanis different names, but most of them have forgotten about him completely. Just as controversial as the film’s main character is this documentary detective story, which at times resembles a feature film or erotic mystery rather than a documentary.”
Along with the above mentioned Jānis Ābelis and Jānis Joņevs, cinematographer Toms Šķēle, editing director Andris Grants, and sound director Ernests Ansons also participated in the making of the film.
The film was produced by Ego Media, supported by the National Film Centre, and distributed by Riverbed Sales.
