Three famous Latvian women (3): Valentīna Freimane
Liden & Denz invites you to discover three incredible Latvian women, whose contributions have shaped Latvian art and history. Let’s conclude this journey with Valentīna Freimane. You can read the previous articles about painter Hilda Vika and media mogul Emilija Benjamina.
The tragedy of World War II
Valentīna Freimane was born in Riga in 1922 in a Jewish family. Both her parents were working in the art industry: her father was working for a cinema company while her mother was a famous figure of Latvian « Bohemia ».
During the Nazi occupation of Latvia, Freimane was hidden by one of her friends, Paul Scheimann, a journalist and politician advocating for minority rights. Thanks to him, Valentīna Freimane survived the holocaust. But her family did not. Her parents died in the Riga ghetto, while her young husband passed away in jail.
An influential critic
After the liberation, Valentīna Freimane started to study at the Latvian State University. She consacred her thesis about the history of Latvian theater and was awarded a PhD. In the meantime, she started her career as a journalist. She worked for various newspapers as well as for radio programmes.
Valentīna Freimane pursued two careers at the same time. On the one hand, she teached theater history at the university. On the other hand, she became one of the most influential theater and cinema critic in Latvia. Her articles and reviews are still nowadays often quoted by specialists and intellectuals. She was the founder of the Latvian Filmmakers Union. A famous public figure in Latvia, she was awarded the Order of the Three Stars, the highest Latvian civilian honor. She received a wide number of prizes, such as the Riga Film Museum prize acknowledging her lifelong contribution to film education in Latvia. She even became honorary professor at the Latvian Academy of Art.
Farewell to Atlantis
Published in 2010, her memoir Farewell to Atlantis encountered enormous success. In the book, Freimane describes the life under Nazi occupation and writes about the tragedy of the Holocaust. Adapted into an opera by Artus Maskats and Liana Langa, Farewell to Atlantis was premiered in Riga in 2014. It has also been then staged in Berlin. Again, the opera achieved unprecedented success. Articles and reviews published at that time pointed out the long-lasting standing ovations at the end of the show, for that Latvians were widely able to relate to the story of Farewell to Atlantis. The book was later translated into Russian.
Valentīna Freimane passed away in 2018, aged 95.
This article was brought to you by Theo, currently studying Russian at Liden & Denz in Riga.
Featured picture: Valentīna Freimane with German minister of Foreign Affairs Dr Frank-Walter Steinmeier and Latvian minister of Foreign Affairs Edgars Rinkēvičs. Photo: Marcus Lieberenz/bildbuehne.de (Veroeffentlichung nur gegen Honorar und Belegexemplar). Flickr.
