Gunārs Piesis (19 July 1931 – 9 February 1996) was a

Latvia Latvia, officially the Republic of Latvia, is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is one of the three Baltic states, along with Estonia to the north and Lithuania to the south. It borders Russia to the east and Belarus to t ...

film director A film director or filmmaker is a person who controls a film's artistic and dramatic aspects and visualizes the screenplay (or script) while guiding the film crew and actors in the fulfillment of that Goal, vision. The director has a key role ...

. Many of Piesis's films are adaptations of classic stories, and he was one of the most popular directors during the

Soviet era The history of the Soviet Union (USSR) (1922–91) began with the ideals of the Russian Bolshevik Revolution and ended in dissolution amidst economic collapse and political disintegration. Established in 1922 following the Russian Civil War, ...

. Popular films include ''Nāves ēna'' (1971), ''Pūt, vējiņi'' (1973), ''Sprīdītis'' (1985), and ''Maija un Paija'' (1991). Piesis struggled with

mental health Mental health is often mistakenly equated with the absence of mental illness. However, mental health refers to a person's overall emotional, psychological, and social well-being. It influences how individuals think, feel, and behave, and how t ...

issues during his career, which he documented in his diary. His archives are now in the Riga Film Museum.

References

1931 births 1996 deaths Latvian film directors Soviet film directors Film people from Riga {{Latvia-film-director-stub