Herz Frank

Directing

Herz Frank

Born — Died

1926-01-17 — 2013-03-03

Place of birth

Ludza, Latvia

Known for

Directing

Credits

42 titles

Herz Frank (17 January 1926- 3 March 2013) was one of the most famous documentary filmmakers of Latvia. At the beginning of 1960ies, he was among the first to establish the so-called Riga poetic documentary school – the Latvian “new wave”. Herz Frank’s filmography includes more than 80 films, many of which are considered classics of Latvian film history. One of his most-known works is Ten Minutes Older (1978), which he made together with Juris Podnieks and in which children's faces are observed during a puppet theatre performance. In 1992, Frank moved to Israel, while maintaining ties with Latvia. In 2001, he received the Lifetime contribution award by the Latvian National Film Awards 'Liela…

Known for

Film credits

Behind the camera

After poster
NR

No synopsis available yet.

After

2009

After poster
NR

No synopsis available yet.

After

2009

After poster
NR

No synopsis available yet.

After

2009

White Bells poster
5.5

A little girl wanders all alone in the morning, through a bustling city, looking for the white bells she noticed in the window of a florist's shop. This film heralded the birth of a new film language in Latvian cinema. It received awards at the San Francisco and Oberhausen festivals. and was included on the list of the “world’s 100 best short films” by the film critics at the 1995 Clermont-Ferrand film festival.. All three of the film’s authors together with their peers became the creators of the legendary Riga School of Poetic Documentary.

White Bells

1961

Flashback poster
5.8

An autobiographical work from Herz Frank. Images guide us through the countries in which he worked, interspersed with fragments from his earlier films: births, autopsies, circumcisions, prisoners awaiting execution and other shocking themes.

Flashback

2003

Flashback poster
5.8

An autobiographical work from Herz Frank. Images guide us through the countries in which he worked, interspersed with fragments from his earlier films: births, autopsies, circumcisions, prisoners awaiting execution and other shocking themes.

Flashback

2003

Flashback poster
5.8

An autobiographical work from Herz Frank. Images guide us through the countries in which he worked, interspersed with fragments from his earlier films: births, autopsies, circumcisions, prisoners awaiting execution and other shocking themes.

Flashback

2003

The Jewish Street poster
NR

The documentary is dedicated to the painful issues of the Holocaust and the Riga Ghetto.

The Jewish Street

1992

The Jewish Street poster
NR

The documentary is dedicated to the painful issues of the Holocaust and the Riga Ghetto.

The Jewish Street

1992

Diagnosis poster
6.0

Philosophic reportage about work of pathoanatomist. Documentary version of Rembrandt’s «Anatomy Lesson».

Diagnosis

1975

No artwork available
NR

The film captures those sacred moments when a person converses with God, feels their connection to the universe, and their soul is open to the good, the beautiful, the spiritual.

Prayer

1990

No artwork available
NR

Tikhov, a lecturer, arrives from the city along a rain-washed road to a construction site. To beat the rain, he stops at a house where a young woman and her child live. The awkwardness of the unexpected guest quickly passes, and Lyuba tries to persuade him not to go to the club, which is surely empty due to the bad weather. But Tikhov leaves, confident that they are waiting for him...

On the Highway

1964

The Sentence Is Not Subject to Appeal poster
NR

No synopsis available yet.

The Sentence Is Not Subject to Appeal

1965

No artwork available
NR

The creation of Sergeij Eisenstein's wooden sculpture by Igor Vasiliers.

Awakening

1979

No artwork available
NR

The creation of Sergeij Eisenstein's wooden sculpture by Igor Vasiliers.

Awakening

1979

Perpetual Rehearsal poster
NR

In 1991, the Moscow director Yevgeny Aryeh, with a handful of emigrants from the USSR, founded the Gesher Theater in Israel, which means “bridge” in Hebrew. Bridge between people. Bridge between cultures. And now between art forms. After all, the film is a fusion of theater and documentary films, a bridge between their languages.

Perpetual Rehearsal

2008

Perpetual Rehearsal poster
NR

In 1991, the Moscow director Yevgeny Aryeh, with a handful of emigrants from the USSR, founded the Gesher Theater in Israel, which means “bridge” in Hebrew. Bridge between people. Bridge between cultures. And now between art forms. After all, the film is a fusion of theater and documentary films, a bridge between their languages.

Perpetual Rehearsal

2008

The Trace of the Soul poster
NR

A psychological portrait of kolkhos chairman Edgar Kaulin, who saved many Latvian farmers from deportations by the Soviets in the period 1945-53, and with them built up a kolkhos.

The Trace of the Soul

1972

Year in Review poster
NR

Filmmakers of Riga poetic documentary school, Freimanis and Seleckis, were designated as the creative core for this documentary to be shot in honour of the 25th anniversary of the Soviet Latvia. The team was joined by the heavyweight poet Imants Ziedonis and Herz Frank as script writers. Instead of one of the old, merited, medal rattling ‘combat camera- men’, “Year in Review” is an unusually vivid and unique film for the time. The creative team were awarded the State Prize for the film.

Year in Review

1965

Without Legends poster
NR

In 1968 Herz Frank made Without Legends (Bez leģendām) at the Kuibishev studios, together with Aloizs Brenčs and Aleksandr Sazhin. The film is based on the memoirs of Hero of Socialist Labor Professor Ivan Vasilyevich Komzin, former head of construction of the V. I. Lenin Volga Hydroelectric Power Station; Hero of Socialist Labor excavator operator V. Klementyev; Honored excavator operator Viktor Vasilyevich Starikov; and writer Konstantin Kirillovich Lapin. Documentary filmmakers from Kuibyshev were making a film about the excavator operator and Hero of Socialist Labor, Boris Yegorovich Kovalenko. However, the material turned out to be too ambiguous to create a film about a model Soviet working man. They turned for advice to the Riga-based documentary filmmaker Herz Frank. He shot additional footage and edited the collected material in such a way that it became a story without legends—about an ordinary person.

Without Legends

1967

Tales poster
NR

A portrait of the prominent Latvian painter Maija Tabaka, showcasing her work process and life of artists from that time.

Tales

1976

Tales poster
NR

A portrait of the prominent Latvian painter Maija Tabaka, showcasing her work process and life of artists from that time.

Tales

1976

Restricted Area poster
NR

The life of a 16 yearo-old convict through the Soviet penal system. The "restricted area" is a penal colony and Borstal, a "work camp" for delinquent children and young people. The film shows the contradictions in the notion of corrective education.

Restricted Area

1975

Restricted Area poster
NR

The life of a 16 yearo-old convict through the Soviet penal system. The "restricted area" is a penal colony and Borstal, a "work camp" for delinquent children and young people. The film shows the contradictions in the notion of corrective education.

Restricted Area

1975

No artwork available
NR

The film is about the selector Pēteris Upītis, who was awarded the honorary title of Meritorious Worker of Science and Technology of the Latvian SSR.

The Joy of Existence

1974

No artwork available
NR

The film is about the selector Pēteris Upītis, who was awarded the honorary title of Meritorious Worker of Science and Technology of the Latvian SSR.

The Joy of Existence

1974

Beyond The Fear poster
NR

The main characters of the film have made choices, which change their lives forever. A young man Yigal Amir assassinates the Prime Minister of Israel and becomes the most hated prisoner in the country. Larissa, who emigrated from Russia, mother of four divorces her first husband, marries the assassin and gives birth to his son. For many years the film authors have been trying to solve and perceive this complicated story. One of them, Hertz Frank, passes away during the shootings remaining on the threshold of the eternal mystery - life, death and love...

Beyond The Fear

2014

Beyond The Fear poster
NR

The main characters of the film have made choices, which change their lives forever. A young man Yigal Amir assassinates the Prime Minister of Israel and becomes the most hated prisoner in the country. Larissa, who emigrated from Russia, mother of four divorces her first husband, marries the assassin and gives birth to his son. For many years the film authors have been trying to solve and perceive this complicated story. One of them, Hertz Frank, passes away during the shootings remaining on the threshold of the eternal mystery - life, death and love...

Beyond The Fear

2014

The High Song poster
6.0

Filmed largely in close-up, this documentary records a woman giving birth while her husband remains at her side. The camera concentrates on her face throughout labor, briefly revealing the moment of the child’s arrival before the newborn is placed in her arms.

The High Song

1989

The High Song poster
6.0

Filmed largely in close-up, this documentary records a woman giving birth while her husband remains at her side. The camera concentrates on her face throughout labor, briefly revealing the moment of the child’s arrival before the newborn is placed in her arms.

The High Song

1989

235 000 000 poster
8.0

In the 1966 the population of the Soviet Union was estimated at 235 million. A group of Latvian filmmakers traveled the length and breadth of the country to create a portrait of the diverse population.

235 000 000

1967

Ten Minutes Older poster
6.2

In this ten-minute documentary experiment, director Herz Frank films a group of children watching a puppet show, keeping the camera fixed on their faces in a single continuous shot. The performance itself remains unseen, while the children’s shifting expressions—fear, laughter, curiosity, and suspense—suggest the story unfolding before them as ten minutes of their lives quietly pass.

Ten Minutes Older

1978

Ten Minutes Older poster
6.2

In this ten-minute documentary experiment, director Herz Frank films a group of children watching a puppet show, keeping the camera fixed on their faces in a single continuous shot. The performance itself remains unseen, while the children’s shifting expressions—fear, laughter, curiosity, and suspense—suggest the story unfolding before them as ten minutes of their lives quietly pass.

Ten Minutes Older

1978

The Last Judgement poster
5.8

A man is facing a trial for murdering a Latvian union leader, which more likely than not will end with a death sentence. A close-up look at his emotional journey through the trial, imprisonment and beyond.

The Last Judgement

1987

The Last Judgement poster
5.8

A man is facing a trial for murdering a Latvian union leader, which more likely than not will end with a death sentence. A close-up look at his emotional journey through the trial, imprisonment and beyond.

The Last Judgement

1987

No artwork available
NR

Film about the Latvian Red Riflemen, and life story of August Daume.

The Grey Guard

1977

Madonna With a Baby poster
NR

Love is stronger than death. The film is based on a unique photograph from the Holocaust – a symbol of the invincibility of the human spirit.

Madonna With a Baby

2001

Madonna With a Baby poster
NR

Love is stronger than death. The film is based on a unique photograph from the Holocaust – a symbol of the invincibility of the human spirit.

Madonna With a Baby

2001

Madonna With a Baby poster
NR

Love is stronger than death. The film is based on a unique photograph from the Holocaust – a symbol of the invincibility of the human spirit.

Madonna With a Baby

2001

No artwork available
10.0

The film is about a rabbi who spends his days and nights at the Western Wall in Jerusalem.

The Man of the Wall - A Documentary Mystery

1998