Youth Eternal (2025) / Mūžīgi jauni

Growing up together doesn't necessarily mean growing old together. Maybe it doesn't even mean growing up at all. There is a point in our childhood friendships when we begin to wonder “are we still friends?”. Maybe that's true for all friendships but it feels more acute in the longstanding ones where you can just grow apart without actually growing. In modern European societies, I think this often happens in the thirties where life circumstances can be so markedly different - with relationship commitments especially. So, what happens when your friends start having kids?

That's the crux of the Latvian film Youth Eternal [Mūžīgi jauni]. I often^[1] get asked where I find these films. In this case, I found it at the end of the road in Riga. I happened to be near a cinema in Central Riga and saw that this was on. Why not?

The trailer was interesting enough and so I thought it was worth a go.

The film starts off with a group of friends on a night out but with a couple missing - missing because the couple are having their first child. The first child of the group. And that group is where the story is, with the way that this child impacts the group being the thread of how life plays out. The most obvious impact is on the parents themselves - excited and tired. Part of the group but no longer really present, they have to take turns to be friends and turns to be parents. Maybe, on their own, they let some of that lingering resentment out into the group which now has to deal with the frustrations of that resentment without really understanding it. The group contains another couple, a couple where maybe the two partners are pushed by the injection of parenthood and responsibility into the bloodstream. And then there are the singletons slapped in the face by their friends settling down and making them wonder about their own biological mortality. And, it isn't just biology that is part of the issue here, it is also the careers and personalities that are interrogated by the mere presence of a baby. It makes them question their careers, their direction and even how helpful they are or should be. It really forces people to think of responsibility. Part of that conceit is shown through drug use and whether that is compatible with growing up - and if they have all grown up. And whether friendships are real or the convenience of circumstance^[2].

The film presents a series of interconnected questions which it ponders on well. Any more would be too much…

I am not sure I have seen a Latvian film, to be honest, but this was technically very competent. It looked great with inventive visuals^[3] helped along with the conceit that one protagonist was a camera operator. This enabled the film to show a music video, for example, as a way of changing the style of the film. There are scenes in urban areas (I assume Riga) amongst some holiday images in more rural, natural spaces when there is a group trip away. Both are well captured and seem to convey the sense of togetherness well. The soundscape was also to my taste with a bed of light electronica. The nature of the film meant that there isn't an obvious protagonist and could be seen as a bit of an ensemble piece with your sympathies being spread around the group at different times. That was well achieved and I like the use of a group to achieve this rather than having to lump all of the sympathy onto one character who may end up doing deeply unsympathetic things. The last film I blogged about, All My Friends Hate Me, also had this theme at this point in the life of a group of friends. Maybe there is something there in my subconscious at the moment.

I thoroughly enjoyed the film and have looked into a few of the cast and crew (in particular the director Armands Zacs, and the actor Elza Gauja and will try to find more films that they have been in.

I'm not sure where you'd be able to see it to be honest. The cinema showed it with subtitles so I guess it is ready for international distribution but it may not be the widest. Maybe it will end up on Mubi, that seems the most likely way.

Why not check out the trailer anyway below.

https://youtu.be/zroQYkoguhY?si=WbGZOIhVC6BaE80o

<sup>1. I don't, this is poetic licence. Nobody is that interested, this is just screaming into the void.↩
2. Class A, Class B, is that the only chemistry? Between us? As Suede sang in my personal highlight of their album Coming Up, “The Chemistry Between Us”.↩
3. I especially liked some of the strobing with light alternating from left to right, which is present in the trailer too.↩</sup>