The Pit

Adults like to pretend that children’s lives are full of opportunity, but the truth is that once they’ve been labelled as troublemakers, it’s very hard for them to shake that off. Markuss (Damir Onackis) gets into trouble almost as soon as he arrives in the village. He doesn’t want to be there and copes by retreating into himself, focusing on quiet, creative activities – the sort of thing that immediately leads to suspicion in a close-knit community. Then the incident occurs. For reasons which will not be revealed until much later, Marcus leaves his younger neighbour Emilija (Luize Birkenberga) trapped alone in a hole in the ground, where she is found only by accident. From then on he is openly shunned.

Markuss’ only anchor is his grandmother Solveiga (Dace Eversa). Though he doesn’t always notice it, she strives to protect him from his mother’s moods. He resents the fact she gives him chores but is delighted when he discovers a stained glass window in her shed. It’s incomplete, but if it could be fixed, it would, he thinks, give her the most glamorous shed in the world. This dream seems as if it could become real when he meets creative artist Sailor (Indra Burkovska), a fellow outcast who has spent decades living in a ramshackle house in the woods. But Sailor has a secret and people’s reactions to their friendship could make life still more difficult for both of them.

A big hit on the festival circuit, winning multiple awards, The Pit is Latvia’s official submission for the 2022 Oscars. Like that window in the shed, it brings together mundane aspects of life with moments of striking beauty which touch on something of the divine. Onackis is a highly impressive lead, presenting us with a boy who is constantly buffeted by the forces around him yet needs only a little affection to keep his spirit alive. Towards the end of the film, Markuss will engage in an act of which no-one thought him capable, forcing others to re-evaluate at least some of their prejudices.

Director Dace Puce has a sharp eye for detail which helps her carve a clear path through the thicket of intersecting stories. The film is sometimes too heavy-handed, but reflects the strangeness of adult behaviour as regarded by a child. Markus’ path is shaped by choices made by others long before he was born. He is sharp at the edges, perhaps a little broken by what he has lived through in his own past, but when he finds the space in which he can fit, he enables everyone to see things differently.