Probably the most known name for the international audience - a director, philosopher, photographer and writer Herz Frank – one of the main founders, ideologists and promoters behind the Poetic cinema style. Having graduated from the Law school in Sverdlovsk, Frank returned to Riga as a journalist and advertisement specialist. Being the son of a photographer, Frank started to work in the photo laboratory of Riga Film Studio, but already two years later his script White Bells was chosen by a debutant director Ivars Kraulitis as his diploma work graduating from The Film Institute in Moscow. Later Frank both wrote the scripts as well as directed documentaries himself. He was most famous for his fine understanding of human psychology and was able to reach deep into human soul. The unusu- al integration of the fact and the symbol was his brand as well as de- sire to discover secrets in relations between a human being and the surrounding world. Frank has directed one of the most important films in the history of documentary cinema - Ten minutes older is used in all the leading film schools of Europe as an outstanding example of pure, meaning- full cinema made in one shot. Among other masterpieces by Herz Frank are: White Bells (1961) – screenwriter, 235 000 000 (1967) – screenwriter, Year in Review (1965) – screenwriters Herz Frank, Imants Ziedonis, director Aivars
Freimanis. The Restricted Area (1975), The Last Celebration (1980).
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