Beautiful Death

Original Title: Brīnišķīgā nāve

Director: Andris Gauja

Producer: Elza Gauja (Riverbed)

Production: Riverbed (Latvia),  AGITPROP (Bulgaria), Film Tower (Estonia), Mammut Film (Italy)

Development Stage: Development, Financing

What constitutes a beautiful death? Modern neuroscience meets ancient rituals to reimagine our deepest fear — increasingly proving itself not as an endpoint, but a passage, both profound and unexpectedly blissful.

Currently pursuing a professional doctorate in film studies, Andris Gauja has written and directed both documentaries—such as Family Instinct (2010, IDFA nomination, AFI Docs Grand Prix, Cinema Eye Honors nomination)—and narrative films, including Nothing Can Stop Us Now (2019, nine nominations for the Latvian National Film Prize) and The Lesson (2014, Montreal IFF, Chicago IFF, Bergen IFF). His films often explore thought-provoking topics, and his current focus is on scientific documentaries. Recently, Andris premiered his documentary The Art of Looking at the Jihlava IDFF, won the Best Short Documentary at the Madrid Shorts FF, was selected for the DocPoint IDFF (Finland, Estonia) and is currently making its way to other IDFF’s, next stops being ArtDocFest Riga (Latvia) competition, Las Cruces IFF (USA) competition and 60th AFO Science Film Festival (Czech Republic) competition.

Elza Gauja works as a producer, director and writer. Her latest full-length feature film A Postcard from Rome (2024) was awarded the Best Feature at the Latvian National Film awards 'Lielais Kristaps’ and was selected for the Sydney IFF, Goa IFF, New York Baltic Film Festival etc. Her debut fiction film Keep Smiling, Mom! (2022) was successfully released nationwide and her feature documentary Meanwhile in Lucavsala (2022) was crowned the Best Debut at the Latvian National Film awards.

Contact Email: gauja@riverbed.lv