Other events in Baltic States

Latvian director Alvis Hermanis has been awarded the prestigious Konrad Wolf Award for the international achievement of the New Riga Theater and the Hermanis-directed productions in German-speaking countries, as the New Riga Theater's Marketing Department's head Andra Rutkevica told LETA.

Earlier this week, Hermanis received an official letter from Berlin Academy of the Arts, informing that he had been selected for the award.

The award is named after the German film director and the long-time president of the Academy of Arts of the German Democratic Republic; it has been presented on an annual basis since 1986. It is a highly valuable international award that each year is granted to one artist for outstanding achievement in theater, film or media arts. Recipients of the award include such well-known artists as Ruth Berghaus, Katharina Thalbach, Margarethe von Trotta, Jurgen Flimm, Ken Loach, Simon McBurney, Volker Schlondorff, Lars von Trier and Edgar Reitz.

The award will be brought to Latvia later this year.

The jury says in the letter that in his productions Hermanis has created new aesthetics, that actors may feel very free and full of self esteem when he directs, and that the end result is astonishingly beautiful. Hermanis is being singled out for the award for the uniqueness of the New Riga Theater, which offers actors the opportunity to participate in a unique creative process and the creation of a new reality.

The award ceremony will take place at Berlin Academy of the Arts on December 14 this year.