An eagerly awaited animated treasure, which has survived the whole pandemic, the ongoing war and the #metoo revolution! From world premiere in Tribeca to a precious award at Annecy, with screenings in Karlovy Vary, Edinburgh, Zurich, Reykjavik, Guadalajara and Antalya to being the Opening Film in Riga. Latvian veteran Signe Baumane spent seven crazy years drawing, animating and shaping her personal independent romantic love road trip to a non-existent ideal relationship in a failed world of male and female passions.

Protect virginity, fall in love, dance at weddings and divorce in style. The full circle starts from the first encounter with a grim man in Vilnius, followed by an initially loving husband somewhere in the USSR before its collapse, and then by a sweet unfortunate second round in Sweden.

After two luckless real marriages, Signe Baumane has created the wildly curious Zelma among 26 speaking and four singing characters. Biting humour, quirky visuals, nostalgic sentiments, amusing songs uncover the mysterious mythology of love. The well-mannered Zelma ironically battles with her inner self while resisting becoming a perfectly normal woman by cultural, political, ideological, scientific and sexualised desires, instructions, rules or commandments. The free-spirited Zelma feistily explores dreams, behaviours, wishes, hopes, truths and conditions of “appropriate womanhood” in this urgently timely and uniquely attractive film.

Edvinas Pukšta