The Gravegiven

Two years after losing their son, a grieving couple, Mother and Father, returns to the countryside home they abandoned after his death. Haunted by a child-sized Entity and an ancient presence from Latvian folklore known as the Grave Mother, they are forced to confront grief, guilt and the long-buried trauma that have kept them from truly moving on. As Mother and Father search for answers and the haunting intensifies, they begin to suspect that the wrath pursuing them is rooted not only in local folklore but in a horrifying truth that one of them has never confessed.

Directors' note

The backbone of The Gravegiven is the themes it explores. The film tells the story of the devastation that avoiding genuine grief can cause to individuals and their relationships. Despite its supernatural elements, the emotions and experiences of the characters are grounded in a reality that audiences can recognise and empathise with.
Although the film explores the impact of grief, it also offers an alternative to how loss is often portrayed in cinema. Rather than driving the couple apart, tragedy has made them dependent on one another.
The story is deliberately told from a man's perspective to explore a woman's experience. We are interested in a man's powerlessness in situations where he can neither help nor take the pain upon himself. This film is about empathy rather than heroism and about accepting that some experiences cannot be shared or fully understood, only witnessed with compassion.
Latvian mythology became the natural foundation for the story because of its unique tradition of powerful maternal deities. Folklore is never treated as decorative horror; instead, it externalises psychological states. The Grave Mother and the Entity embody grief, guilt, shame, suppressed truths and panic, making the supernatural inseparable from the fabric of the film and the characters' emotional lives.
Our greatest inspirations are films such as Don't Look Now, Bring Her Back, Hereditary, The Haunting of Hill House, Let the Right One In, The Wailing, The VVitch, Mama, as well as Pieces of a Woman and Upurga – works that use genre to explore powerful themes. Visually, The Gravegiven embraces the restrained language of 1970s cinema through wide compositions, deliberate pacing and naturalistic imagery.
Ultimately, our goal is simply to make good cinema. This story and these themes are things that we and people close to us have experienced first-hand, which is why we approach them with empathy, honesty and a deep sense of responsibility.