The Python

The story of The Python was invented, but it was based on a true event. Something strange happens at a typically Latvian school in the post Soviet era: somebody keeps shitting in the school attic. The female director, the tyrant of the school, sets out to investigate the case. Nobody is allowed to leave the school before the guilty party is found. The problems really only start when the school photographer’s python disappears. Not only that, his monkey gets lost too. And a hunter tries to catch a beaver on the roof. The absurd drama reveals how two snakes -the real one and the school headmistress -can be found in one and the same school. Her typical style -beautifully photographed, slightly absurd and minimalist in theme -was already demonstrated by Pakalnina in her feature début The Shoe (Rotterdam 1999). Of The Python she says: ‘Films have to either be correct or be made in a daring way. This is my second feature, which is why I can say with certainty that I never really know how to characterise my films. The fact is that we -I mean me and my cameraman Gints Berzins -have an ironic view of life. This does not however mean that we make the audience laugh.’ Variety wrote: ‘Though unquestionably not a film for everyone, and virtually unclassifiable, The Python is an utterly disarming experience.’