Jacob lives in the city and dreams of becoming an architect like his busy dad. He spends a lot of time drawing buildings and daydreaming while his father is at work. One day dad needs to go away on business for longer than usual and Jacob has to spend a whole week with his bossy cousin Mimmi and her ex-pirate father Eagle in Riga’s historical suburb called Maskachka. As soon as Jacob arrives it turns out that the local park is about to be transformed into new skyscrapers by a greedy businessman. Jacob and Mimmi decide to stop the development. It turns out that they can only do it with the help of a pack of local dogs that… can talk!
"There was a lot of discussion about [single parents] when we were writing the script. It comes from a book – there are also these two dads and no explanation about the whereabouts of the mothers. We decided to keep it, because we liked that idea. Ten years ago I started to think about family as an institution and then I saw some single fathers living with their kids. I was so surprised by it. I thought they were so strong and maybe that’s the reason why I wanted to keep it in the film. We don’t explain anything here either, but if someone asked us about it directly, we would say for example that Jacob’s mum is still with his father, but she is busy studying somewhere in the States at the moment. There are small bits of information here and there, allowing you build your own story. It makes it much lighter than simply having a scene when a character is visiting somebody’s grave.
Of course, it’s not like we are trying to convince anyone to have their children run around without supervision [laughter]. But as a kid, it would be nice to have a chance to get out of the apartment every once in a while and not just sit in front of the screen. Do something that hasn’t been scheduled weeks before and just talk to people. I think it’s very important. Which is why in the film, we wanted to create a universe where you could feel safe and warm. And a bit nostalgic perhaps."
- Edmunds Jansons