The Boston Baltic Film Festival runs from Friday, 3/3 through Sunday, 3/5 at the Emerson Paramount Center, and through 3/19 virtually. Click here for the schedule and ticket info, and watch the site for Joshua Polanski’s continuing coverage!

Linda Olte’s feature debut, Sisters, might be the most endearing film from this year’s Boston Baltic Film Festival—at least of the films I’ve seen so far. But it’s also painful (in the best of ways). Recently awarded the “Best Director of a Feature Film” at the Lielais Kristaps (Great Kristaps), the Latvian equivalent to the Academy Awards, Sisters is one of the festival’s most essential films. Don’t miss it.

A conservative Christian American family wants to adopt two teenage sisters in a Latvian orphanage, the thirteen year old Anastasija (Emma Skirmante) and eleven year old Diāna (Gerda Aljēna), a decision the two sisters share different opinions on. Though it’s considered a miracle that a family would want to adopt two teenagers, Anastasija rejects the “miracle” and seeks what appears to be an impossible reconciliation with her birth mom, a financially and emotionally unstable ex-convict. 

Continue reading at the Boston Hassle.