Uļa / Ulya

With hunched shoulders and a shy smile, the two-metre-tall girl looks into the camera for the class photo. Ulya, who grew up on a remote farm in Latvia in the 1960s, and whose parents are members of the Old Believers religious community, looks out of place in the picture. She towers above everyone. When the photograph falls into the hands of a basketball coach, Ulya is immediately recruited for the Soviet sport system. But on the court, she feels even more reduced to nothing more than her height. The camera captures this isolation in high-contrast black-and-white images. The lack of colour intensifies the oppressive atmosphere in the village, and records the ruthlessness of the Riga functionaries. The life of basketball legend Ulyana Semjonova is not presented here as a classic sports drama. Above all, the focus remains on the search for identity and belonging in the shadow of the Soviet system. A young girl struggles to find her place in sport and in life.