The ‘Soviet Jeans’ team starts production of the final separation from communism

The creative team behind “Soviet Jeans,” the breakout hit that won two awards at Series Mania in 2024, returns with “The Last Divorce of Communism,” a period drama series set in Latvia in 1988.

The six-part series, now in production, is about an ordinary couple who commit a sham divorce to circumvent the USSR’s rigid real estate policy and save their apartment from nationalization. Under constant surveillance from informants and nosy neighbors, the couple must hide their enduring love while navigating a society on the brink of collapse and the promise of newfound freedom.

The production will be shot over several seasons in Latvia and Lithuania, combining archival footage with newly filmed footage to meticulously recreate late-Soviet Riga, the capital of Latvia. The premiere is scheduled for 2027.

The series was created by Teodora Markova and Stanisļavs Tokalovs, who previously collaborated on “Soviet Jeans,” an unusual drama that is gearing up for a second season and won the Audience Award and the Best Actor Award at Series Mania’s International Panorama Competition a few years ago.

“The Last Divorce of Communism” is produced by Aija Bērziņa of the Latvian band Tasse Film. “Teodora and Stanisļavs have the rare gift of finding comedy in the cracks of history,” Bērziņa said. “‘The Last Divorce of Communism’ is our love letter to anyone who has ever bent the rules for the people they love – a fake divorce, a real love story and the full weight of the Soviet Union standing in the way. What more could you want?”

The series is supported by Latvian public media and is co-produced by Greta Akcijonaitė at Magic Films in Lithuania and Martichka Bozhilova at Bulgaria’s Agitprop, with Danna Stern of In Transit Productions as executive producer. The series is supported by the Lithuanian Film Center and the Bulgarian National Film Center.

The project has already received a lot of attention after being presented at several European co-production markets, including TV Days at the Serial Killer festival in Brno. It won the award for best pre-development in the scripted series category at NEM Zagreb and the award for best pitch for fiction series at the Heart of Europe TV Festival in Warsaw. The film will be showcased at Media Play in Sofia in May.

Tokalovs directs together with Markova and Lithuanian filmmaker Tomas Vengris. The ensemble cast includes Ieva Segliņa, Edgars Samītis, Chulpan Khamatova, Ieva Estere Barkāne, Kaspars Znotiņš and Vilis Daudziņš.