Is It Easy to Be Young? (1987) poster
1987 · documentary · latvian · social

Is It Easy to Be Young?

Directed by Juris Podnieks1h 23m1987
ElsewhereIMDb7.9403TMDB4.812
  • sombre
Movie DNA

Sombre, steady, measured documentary / latvian, grounded in texture. Ambivalent, mid-stakes, measured, hand-scored across twelve axes of taste.

How every film is hand-scored →

Portrayal of a generation of rebellious teenagers growing up under Communist rule in Latvia.

Our read · Is It Easy to Be Young? (1987) reads as a sombre, steady, grounded documentary · latvian · social entry — measured in intensity, mid-stakes in scope, measured in temperature, ambivalent in outlook, with a strong directorial signature. Hand-scored on twelve axes of taste — mood, pacing, weirdness, hope, stakes, humour, reality, density, warmth, auteur, intensity, and era — with a derived palette drawn from its dominant cinematography.

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The shape of Is It Easy to Be Young?

Tonight, this looks like

What watching it is actually like.

You want a frank 80s Latvian documentary on rebellious youth under late Soviet rule.

ends unsettlingit stays with yousteady all the waygrips by minute 5attention 3/5breezes bysubtitles: full
Date nightWith friendsSoloWith parentsKids around
Heads-updrug use

Skip it tonightSkip if vintage political documentaries about disillusioned youth feel dated or heavy.

If Is It Easy to Be Young? is your film
The Singing Revolution (2006)
Baltic independence and cultural resistance voices
(unless you prefer pure youth snapshot)
My Perestroika (2010)
intimate Soviet youth facing regime change
(unless you want 1986 rock focus)
The Look of Silence (2014)
confronting state violence and memory
(unless too somber for tonight)
DNA · twelve axes

The reading.

Each axis is hand-scored — not derived from votes or genre averages. The marker shows where this film sits; the gradient fill uses the film's own cinematography palette.

Mood · HeavyCosy
Pacing · Slow-burnKinetic
Intensity · GentleExtreme
Weirdness · ConventionalSurreal
Hope · NihilisticRedemptive
Stakes · IntimateEpic
Humour · NoneBroad
Reality · GroundedFantastical
Density · SparseTwisty
Warmth · ColdTender
Auteur · TransparentSignature
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