Elza Radziņa

Acting

Elza Radziņa

Born 1917-02-10 · Kharkov, Kharkov Governorate, Russian Empire [now Kharkiv, Ukraine]

Elza Radziņa (February 10, 1917; Kharkiv, Russian Empire – August 18, 2005; Riga, Latvia) was a Latvian theater and cinema actress, master of the spoken word (reader). She received award of People's Artist of the USSR in 1976 and Order of the Three Stars in 1995. She studied in Jelgava theater studio in 1942. After the World War II worked in Jelgava Drama theater (1945-1953). For a brief moment she worked in Valmiera Drama theater, but from 1954 worked in Latvian National Theater, where she became one of the leading actresses. In 1949 she made her debut in biographical drama film "Rainis" from Riga Film Studio.

Acting credits

Blow, Wind! poster
4.0

Based on a stage play of the same name by the one of the biggest names in the history of Latvian literature Rainis, "Put, vejini" tells a story of an unconventional love that blossoms between the handsome, wealthy and impetuous merchant Uldis and the timid, humble and clear-hearted orphan Baiba.

Blow, Wind!

1973

The Swamp Wader poster
5.2

Latvia in the late 19th century. Edgars, the coachman of Alaine manor, loves Kristine, the washerwoman's daughter, although he is too hot-headed for Kristine's mother to consider him a good suitor for his daughter. Servant Viskrelis and stable boy Sutka try to tempt Edgars to a life of drinking and a relationship with the barmaid Matilde. Meanwhile, Kristine is courted by a rich landowner, Akmentins.

The Swamp Wader

1966

Rain Blues poster
6.0

A lonely thirty year-old woman lives in a small apartment on the edge of town. She meets a man, life looks brighter, but she suspects he’s hiding something from her.

Rain Blues

1982

The Republic of Varnu Street poster
4.8

Children of Varnu Street whose fathers work in nearby factories face the "Tuliana Empire" - a group of boys, children of merchants from the nearby Lauku Street.

The Republic of Varnu Street

1970

The Times of the Surveyors poster
6.0

Land surveyors arrive in two parishes to measure and redistribute manor land. The rivalry between both feoffees for land and woman begins.

The Times of the Surveyors

1968

The Photo of a Woman with a Boar poster
4.0

The 1980s. Kārlis did his military service in Afghanistan and is now confined to a wheelchair. Before he left, he had fallen in love with the teacher Judīte, but she has now married a rich man...and poses nude for Kārlis' neighbour, the cynical photographer Rūdofs. Soon Rūdolfs is found dead, and Kārlis admits to having murdered him. But investigator Konrāds suspects that Kārlis is incriminating himself.

The Photo of a Woman with a Boar

1987

Devil's Servants on a Devil's Mill poster
5.2

The 30-year war still goes on. Riga headmasters have decided to submit themselves to mercy of Polish-Lithuanian Duke. Rigas' defenders disagree strongly and steal the ceremonial Key of Riga. Will they succeed in their fight against all odds? Will three Latvian musketeers have their happily ever after?

Devil's Servants on a Devil's Mill

1972

Theatre poster
6.3

The great actress Julia Lambert suddenly realizes that she is, alas, getting old. What can help a woman who has absolutely everything? Only new love. And Julia falls in love with the first person she meets: an ambitious young man who has not a penny behind his soul. So begins a new life - a new romance and new tears. How else could it be?

Theatre

1978

The Courage to Kill poster
NR

Erik lives by night. He works in a nightclub and occasionally dresses up as a woman to rob rich clients. One day Erik's father arrives uninvited. It's a surprise visit that brings out memories of complicated childhood.

The Courage to Kill

1993

Littlefinger poster
4.9

Little Littlefinger's evil stepmother exploits him amd makes his life very hard, so the little shepherd boy decides to leave home and seek happiness in the world outside. There little Littlefinger meets the Wind Mother, Forest Mother and a little old man on his way. Each of them gives him a chore to do that earns him a gift with magical power, which comes in handy when he has to defeat Scrooges, Lop-Eared Man and the Devil himself. While traveling in the world and looking for happiness, he realises he misses his grandmother and little sister...

Littlefinger

1987

The Last Relic poster
6.4

A medieval love story with lots of adventures. The times are troubled - there's a revolt of peasants going on. To secure its safety a monastery chases for a relics of a holy Brigitte. A nobleman promises to get it if he gets beautiful Agnes as a reward. But she fells in love with a handsome adventurer. The monastery has to act shrewd now and play double game.

The Last Relic

1970

Defying Fate poster
NR

The events of the film take place in Latvia during the 1930s to the 1950s. Klinta, a young, poor, and naive villager, studies music in a nearby provincial Latvian town. Her meeting with the owner of a wealthy farm, Olavs, becomes fateful for the girl.

Defying Fate

1975

Family Album poster
NR

A strong-willed, energetic woman who has earned the deepest respect and authority through her work, but is unhappy in her family life.

Family Album

1978

Hide-and-seek poster
4.0

A young woman, Regina, has been killed in her apartment. Investigator Anderson holds Regina’s husband as a suspect for a murder because he is unable to remember his location at the time of the fateful event. Gradually, Anderson is convinced that Oto has not only killed his wife, but he also tries to hide his true identity – notorious criminal Schmit.

Hide-and-seek

2001

Favorite poster
5.4

Alan York is a race horse jockey who sees his friend and chief rival jockey fall to his death during a steeplechase race. Alan knows it could not have been an accident. He pursues clues while meeting a lovely young lady and her fascinating uncle, until he finally discovers why his friend died... and why he is next to die.

Favorite

1976

Inspector Goole poster
4.6

Sudden arrival of a police inspector in the middle of a bourgeois family's dinner party reveals various sordid and shameful secrets that may have contributed to the recent suicide of an impoverished young woman.

Inspector Goole

1979

Secret of the Blackbirds poster
6.6

Mr. Fortescue, owner of a big company, unexpectedly dies. The autopsy shows that he has been poisoned. Nobody actually loved him, and even his family members had their reasons to kill him. But who really did it? And who is responsable for killing his young servant and his wife within the next couple of days? Of course the only person who can answer this question is Ms. Marple. And of course, the murderer is the person you least expected it to be.

Secret of the Blackbirds

1983

Hamlet poster
7.3

Shakespeare's 17th century masterpiece about the "Melancholy Dane" was given one of its best screen treatments by Soviet director Grigori Kozintsev. Kozintsev's Elsinore was a real castle in Estonia, utilized metaphorically as the "stone prison" of the mind wherein Hamlet must confine himself in order to avenge his father's death. Hamlet himself is portrayed (by Innokenti Smoktunovsky) as the sole sensitive intellectual in a world made up of debauchers and revellers. Several of Kozintsev directorial choices seem deliberately calculated to inflame the purists: Hamlet's delivers his "To be or not to be" soliloquy with his back to the camera, allowing the audience to fill in its own interpretations.

Hamlet

1964

The Last Visit poster
7.0

During one of her business trips, journalist Saira Burton receives news of her husband Tom's death. Believing it to be murder, she begins her own investigation...

The Last Visit

1984

No artwork available
8.5

No synopsis available yet.

Olegs and Aina

1974

Klavs - The Son of Martin poster
NR

The son of Martins Viksna, the collective farm chairman, Klavs comes home from the military service and starts working in his native kolkhoz but does not understand his colleagues, so he goes to town.

Klavs - The Son of Martin

1970

King Lear poster
6.7

King Lear, old and tired, divides his kingdom among his daughters, giving great importance to their protestations of love for him. When Cordelia, youngest and most honest, refuses to idly flatter the old man in return for favor, he banishes her and turns for support to his remaining daughters. But Goneril and Regan have no love for him and instead plot to take all his power from him. In a parallel, Lear's loyal courtier Gloucester favors his illegitimate son Edmund after being told lies about his faithful son Edgar. Madness and tragedy befall both ill-starred fathers.

King Lear

1970

Behind Glass Door poster
NR

Gunar Berg is studying at the Polytechnic Institute. He is eighteen years old and comes from a well-off family. In order to not be financially dependent on his parents, Gunar decides to work as an orderly at a cardiology clinic. Here, facing human tragedies on a daily basis, Gunar will discover something important...

Behind Glass Door

1978

Maritime Climates poster
NR

The colourful musical comedy Maritime Climates could have been a triumph of smart political satire – if people in positions of power hadn’t got worried by the rushes they saw, which lead them to terminate the production. In 1992, Rolands Kalniņš made this edit of the remaining material – an elegy to lost hopes and illusions.

Maritime Climates

1974