Private Project

No Regrets

To escape the cold and mundane bus wait, two elderly ladies, Nina and Zulfia revisit their warm past desires in a story that explores a conflicting relationship between one's memory and dream.

  • Žanete Skarule
    Director
    Flying Monks Temple
  • Juri Krutii
    Writer
    Eudaimonia; Keyhole
  • Alise Rogule
    Producer
  • Žanete Skarule
    Producer
  • Kalvis Kulackovskis
    Director of Photography
  • Tomas Vengris
    Editor
  • Toms Grīnbergs
    Production Designer
  • Viktoria Martjanova
    Costume
    Minsk
  • Alberts Levics
    Sound Designer
  • Nadežda Masļuka
    Key Cast
    "NINA"
  • Ludmila Norina
    Key Cast
    "ZULFIA"
  • Project Type:
    Short
  • Genres:
    Drama, Comedy, Satire
  • Runtime:
    6 minutes 4 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    September 1, 2022
  • Country of Origin:
    Latvia
  • Country of Filming:
    Latvia
  • Language:
    Russian
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Aspect Ratio:
    5:4
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
  • Dingle International Film Festival
    Dingle
    Ireland
    November 12, 2022
    Worldwide Premiere
    Official Selection
  • Tampere Film Festival
    Tampere
    Finland
    March 8, 2023
    Official Selection
Director Biography - Žanete Skarule

Žanete Skarule is a Riga-born filmmaker. Over the years she has worked in film production in New York and Los Angeles, where she also graduated from California Institute of the Arts with an MFA in film directing.
Žanete works in different genres and techniques – fiction, documentary, experimental, and most recently - virtual reality merged with contemporary performance. Filmmakers like Jonas Mekas, regarded as the godfather of avant-garde cinema, have left a significant impact on her artistic practice. Žanete worked in Mekas’ New York-based studio until 2012 when she started her journey as a filmmaker.

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Director Statement

The inspiration for No Regrets came from hearing a dream. My mother's elderly friend dreamed she was at Jean-Paul Belmondo's funeral. She joked that being from the post-soviet block, she immediately rushed to the table to see what food was being served. Unfortunately, almost everything was eaten, but when a flirtatious Emmanuel Macron approached to seduce her, it more than made up for the disappointment.
I remember looking at my mothers' friend differently after hearing about the dream. Perhaps it reminded me that the body may grow old but our feelings and emotions, even desires — don't fade with age.
No Regrets explores the space between memory, dream, and fantasy. What Nina tells Zulfia as an innocent dream, in reality, is a safe way for both ladies to revisit their past. The audit of one!s life choices is an inevitable part of growing old.
This film examines the hidden desires of the elderly female through the lens of a minority population living in Latvia. The population of non-Latvian speakers that immigrated to the country from other Soviet republics during the early decades of the Soviet Union. In some ways, they have been living a parallel existence, that only occasionally intersects with our reality ... just like in a dream.