ULYA
Special Features: 2027 Oscar® Selection, Latvia
[UĻA]
Latvian filmmaker Viesturs Kairišs’ striking Cannes-premiered coming-of-age drama is inspired by the life of legendary Latvian basketball player Ulyana Semjonova. In the snowbound countryside of Soviet Latvia in 1964, a teenage girl struggles to imagine a future in a world that has no obvious place for her. Ulyana, or Ulya (Kārlis Arnolds Avots, who also co-wrote the screenplay), is growing at a remarkable rate, her monumental stature setting her apart even within the close-knit community of Old Believers where she lives with her family. When a photograph brings her to the attention of basketball scouts in Riga, what appears to be an escape from isolation becomes the beginning of a more complicated journey. Inspired by the early life of Semjonova, Kairišs’ thoughtful character study approaches the sports biopic from an unexpected direction. Rather than simply charting the making of a champion, the film explores the uneasy boundary between being celebrated and being accepted. On the court, Ulya discovers that the body that has made her an outsider can also become a source of extraordinary ability. Yet as her talent attracts attention, she faces the reality that while the world may be ready to value her physical gifts, making space for the person behind them is a separate question. Rendered in evocative black and white by Polish cinematographer Wojciech Starón, ULYA moves between the austere beauty of rural Latvia and the chaotic, fiercely competitive environs of professional sport. Its visual restraint draws attention to Ulya’s solitude, while her gradual transformation becomes a meditation on difference, self-acceptance and the longing to belong without surrendering one’s individuality. –Abbie Algar
DIR Viesturs Kairišs; SCR Kārlis Arnolds Avots, Livia Ulman, Andris Feldmanis; PROD Guntis Trekteris. Latvia/Poland/Estonia/Lithuania, 2026, b&w, 102 min. In Latvian and Russian with English subtitles. NOT RATED
Run Time: 102 Minutes
Opening Date: Sunday, December 13, 2026
Genre: Drama
