乌鸦街共和国

The action in this film, shot after eponymous semi-autobiographical story by Jānis Grīziņš, mostly takes place in Grīziņkalns (industrial like suburb in Riga) soon after the revolution of 1905. Children of factory workers have their own 'republic' of Crow street, they have their daily quarrels with gang or richer merchant kids from nearby Field street, but everything changes when one day a man, fleeing from the police, leaves behind a mysterious suitcase. Unintentionally children are participating in revolutionary activities... Jānis Grīziņs (real name Jānis Griķis, born in 1900) himself came from a worker's family, later participated in Russian civil war during which he got infected with syphilis and, after subsequent mental illness, died in a psychiatric hospital in 1941. In Soviet days there were rumors that Germans had shot him along with other inmates, but actually he died before Germans gained control so, if anybody is to take blame for his supposedly forcible death, those should be Soviet authorities. Anyway, "Vārnu Ielas Rebublika" remains one thing he's famous for, since essays on criminal law (he studied law) are of no interest to ordinary reader. Communistic tendencies seem more emphasized in the movie, than they are in the book, especially in the end when future paths of Crow street children are revealed. That part is an addition not present in written text.