Fiction film "Ulya", created in collaboration between director Viestur Kairish and an actor Kārlis Arnolds Avots, has been selected for the competition programme Un Certain Regard at the 79th Cannes Film Festival.
Published: 09.04.2026.
Un Certain Regard is one of the two official competition programs of the Cannes Film Festival, selecting around 20 films with an unusual, original artistic vision in fierce competition from all over the world.
The feature film Ulya / Uļa is based on the idea of actor Kārlis Arnolds Avots and the desire to play out this emotional and dramatic story of the search for an unusual identity of a teenager, based on the biography of the legendary female Latvian basketball player Ulyana Semyonova. The action takes place in Latvia at the end of the sixties of the last century, the heroine of the film Ulya grows up in a remote Latvian farmstead in an Old Believer family, and her unusual height makes loved ones doubt whether such a tall girl will have a place in this world at all. When the photo of the class falls into the hands of basketball coaches, Ulys is taken to Riga to join a famous basketball team, however, it is not easy for a girl to believe in her own strength, accept herself and find the right way to go from a confused teenager to a world-class sports personality – one of the few that Latvia have.
Dita Rietuma, head of the National Film Centre of Latvia, comments: "I am truly thrilled and proud that Latvian film has managed to break into the official programme of the world's most important film festival. The feature film Ulya, which is an original and conceptual work, has managed to compete with thousands of films from all over the world that are submitted to the Cannes Film Festival. Also significant in the modern history of Latvian cinema is the fact that after only a one-year pause, Latvian film returns to the Cannes competition program – in 2024, the now world-famous animated film Flow / Straume conquered Cannes. This year's Cannes contestant Ulya is a radically different work – a ficiton film, the protagonist of the main role of which Kārlis Arnolds Avots caries out the time of youth of basketball legend Ulyana Semyonova. It should be emphasized that the film is a co-production of the three Baltic countries and Poland, in which the creative and financial contribution of each country is significant. However, Ulya will enter the history of Latvian cinema as a unique international achievement of the film's creative group – director Viestur Kairish, author of the idea and actor Kārlis Arnolds Avots, producer Gunts Trekters. And also being bright achievement for entire Latvian cinema!"
"The film Ulya is unusual in everything – from the choice of actors, the visual language and the creation of the story. This proves once again that bold and ambitious goals are not easy to achieve, but the satisfaction of success in such cases is greater. We are honored and infinitely happy that the Cannes Film Festival has appreciated this creative daring," emphasizes the producer of the film Guntis Trekteris.
Actor Kārlis Arnolds Avots admits: "When this idea was born to me eight years ago, as an excited student, I was running around looking for a director who would undertake to carry it out, and I am very happy that this film was made directly with Viestur Kairish. And from the very beginning, I had a quiet but ironclad belief that story of Ulya would touch hearts and get to where it needs to get. This film completely changed me, I'm extremely grateful to everyone who responded to it, and I'm happy that the film about Ulya is making it to the Olympics of the cinema!"
Film was produced by studio Ego Media and, and is a a co-production between Latvia, Estonia (Allfilm), Poland (Staron Film) and Lithuania (Tremora) Financialy supported by the National Film Centre of Latvia, Latvian Mobile Telephone (LMT), Latvian Television (LTV), Estonian Film Institute, Polish Film Institute, Lithuanian Film Centre, Riga City Council, Augšdaugava Municipality, Daugavpils State City Municipality, Latvijas Finieris.
The creative team of the film includes scriptwriters Kārlis Arnolds Avots, Līvija Ulmane and Andris Feldmanis (both from Estonia), director Viestur Kairish, cinematographer Wojciech Staron (Poland), artist Ieva Jurjāne, costume designer Rūta Lečaite (Lithuania), makeup artist Lisi Polum (Estonia), editing director Armands Začs, sound director Sīms Skepasts (Estonia).
Starring Kārlis Arnolds Avots, Chulpan Khamatova, Alex Kazanavich, Artūrs Krūzkops, Alise Dzene, Dārta Cīrule, Madara Viļčuka, Kaspars Dumburs, Shamil Khamatov, etc.
The Latvian premiere of the feature film will take place in the autumn of this year.