Our film MARIA’S SILENCE tells the true story of Maria Leiko, a Latvian-born German silent film and theatre actress. It delves into the concluding chapter of Leiko’s life, a period marked by the journey she undertook to the Soviet Union to care for her newborn granddaughter. Here she inadvertently becomes a witness to and tragic victim of the ruthless persecution of Latvians that was instigated by Stalin in what became known as the “national operation” of the NKVD, the USSR’s ministry of the interior. The characters embodied by Maria Leiko, her distinctive style and expressive acting transcended mere artistic representation. They mirrored her political convictions and avant-garde sensibilities, which ultimately shaped the fateful trajectory of her life. Having lived through the most progressive and creative era of the 20th century, starring in such films as Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau’s SATANAS and gracing the stage at Erwin Piscator’s German political theatre, she envisioned an ideal society where the rights of the individual were revered and the majority would be spared from a wretched existence. The roles portrayed by Maria Leiko and her unwavering belief in the transformative power of art in the face of political oppression placed her in clear opposition to Stalin’s brutal regime. As is often the case in history, she would find herself on the losing side of this struggle. Nevertheless, much like millions of other innocent souls, her story functions as a profound historical lesson. Surprisingly, this lesson resonates with increased relevance today, less than a century later, amidst the inhumane conflict in Ukraine, internal repression in Russia under Putin’s regime, global strife and the unsettling rise of authoritarian tendencies even within certain European countries.
Dāvis Sīmanis
