Riga. Julijs Kalnins, nicknamed "Caesar", is a telephone installer who in his free time writes songs and performs in a band called "The Optimists". He is in a relationship with Bella. However, he reads a negative review from Anita, a member of the Communist Cultural Committee, who disparages his lyrics for being incompatible with Communist ideology. Julijs talks with Anita, who lives in his residential buildings, and says he refuses to change his lyrics to suit the government decree. On a meeting of the Cultural Committee, the board members all use Anita's negative review as a reference to ban the songs, even though they never heard them. However, Anita changes her mind and supports Julijs, but too late. Julijs refuses to change his lyrics, and thus drops out of the band.
"Four White Shirts" is a bitter criticism of any kind of government censorship of meddling into art to try to change it only for ideological reason, not for its quality, sending a message that artists should be given autonomy and freedom to do what they want—and considering the main protagonist shares his last name with the director of the film, Rolands Kalnins, the hidden messages are even more obvious. Since the film was banned by the Soviet occupation authorities, it actually reached an ironic full circle. "Four White Shirts" has a genius opening: four white shirts are hanging outside on a rope, while its film title is written on a wall—and then the camera pans down, to "follow" all the opening credits of cast and film crew written with a chalkboard on the ground. Very creative, but unfortunately, nothing ever comes close to this playfulness later on in the film, which is conventionally directed. A clever and refreshing idea is that the protagonist Julijs actually has a chance to talk to the critic Anita who gave a negative review of his song, since she is his neighbor and lives in the same building. When he becomes too cynical in her apartment, she threatens to call the police, which causes him to slyly remark with Bella: "She seems to call everybody and probably feels better after that." - "She's about to call the police!" - "On a direct line through the electric iron? There are no phone lines installed!" Julijs even makes fun of Anita in another sequence: "I was at a kindergarten. She pulled off a doll's head to see if it really had sawdust inside." Another stylistic moment is a random scene of a mime who swipes with his hand at a woman smiling who is left with a serious face, as he "takes" her smile away and "gives" it to himself, smiling, and then takes it away and gives the smile to another man by again swiping in front of his face. The rest of the film is a bit overstretched, stale and standard, especially in the underwritten role of girlfriend Bella, but its themes of integrity still strike a chord today.
Grade:++
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