Ieva Lība Ratniece (Latvia)

Biography

Ieva Lība Ratniece is an animation director and educator based in Riga, Latvia. She holds an MA in Animation Film from KASK, Ghent. Her work explores experimental media, materials, and tactile forms of storytelling. Her graduation film, WANDERING DOT AND THE BLANK SQUARE PAGE UNIVERSE (2024), has screened at PÖFF, ANIFILM, Tricky Women/Tricky Realities, and Punto y Raya. She is currently directing a stop-motion series.

Project

DAINTY NEIGHBOURS / SMALKIE KAIMIŅI

Stop-Motion Animated Mini-Series

A young pantry moth ventures beyond her colony into the human world, where she must navigate everyday obstacles and life threatening dangers in search of a place to survive and belong.

Set within an apartment block, DAINTY NEIGHBOURS is a stop-motion animated mini-series revealing the hidden lives of moths and other tiny creatures living alongside humans. Each episode opens a window into a different apartment and a different struggle for survival. At the centre is a young pantry moth who leaves the safety of her oat-jar colony and ventures into the unfamiliar world beyond the pantry. As she explores cupboards, sugar jars and shared spaces, she encounters other insects and animals, each adapting to the hazards of domestic life in their own way.

Humans, pets and everyday objects become unpredictable threats, turning an ordinary home into a vast and dangerous landscape. Through the perspective of these small, often unwanted creatures, the series explores coexistence, resilience and adaptation, inviting us to notice the fragile forms of life that inhabit our homes unnoticed.