The Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian adaptations of Cesc Gay’s The People Upstairs have wrapped production in Riga and Vilnius. The three films were shot in their respective languages, with separate directors, casts and creative teams.

The story centres on a married couple who have been together for more than 20 years. They share a home and a child, and appear to have settled into an ordinary domestic routine, but years of silence and unspoken feelings have accumulated between them. When their new upstairs neighbours come over for dinner and freely discuss their open relationship, the ordinary evening takes an unexpected turn, bringing long-suppressed emotions to the surface and forcing the couple to reconsider their relationship.

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The Estonian version, Ettepanek (lit. “The Proposal”), was directed by Arun Tamm (Perfect Strangers, Von Fock), with Priit Võigemast (Truth and Justice), Maiken Pius, Kaspar Velberg (Firebird) and Saara Pius leading the cast, and with Külliki Saldre (Love Is Blind) also appearing. The Latvian version, Aicinājums (lit. “The Invitation”), was directed by Dž Dž Džilindžers (Perfektie) and stars Jānis Skutelis (Neon Spring), Kristīne Krūze-Hermane, Egons Dombrovskis (The Exalted) and Evija Krūze. The Lithuanian adaptation, Kaimynai iš viršaus (lit. “The Upstairs Neighbours”), was directed by Mykolas Vildžiūnas (Non-Present Time), with Milda Noreikaitė (Poison), Kirilas Glušajevas (Between Us, Boys), Toma Vaškevičiūtė (The Generation of Evil) and Mantas Vaitiekūnas in the leading roles.

The project follows the same cross-Baltic production model used for the regional adaptations of Perfect Strangers, with the producers developing three national-language versions of the same source material while sharing selected key crew members. In the new project, cinematographer Mihkel Soe serves as director of photography across all three films, while Maija Jansone is responsible for the production design. Each version has its own costume designer: Alli Liis Vandel in Estonia, Anda Ščerbaka in Latvia and Juozas Valenta in Lithuania.

The Spanish-language The People Upstairs, released in 2020, was adapted from Gay’s own stage play and was followed by versions in Italy (Marriages), Switzerland (The Neighbours from Upstairs), France (Maybe More) and South Korea (The People Upstairs). The latest version is Olivia Wilde’s US remake The Invite, starring Wilde alongside Seth Rogen, Penélope Cruz and Edward Norton, which premiered this year at the Sundance Film Festival.

Tanel Tatter, lead producer at Apollo Film Productions, stated: “It was once again a powerful Baltic filmmaking journey. This time, our home was Riga, where we built the main studio, while the exterior scenes were filmed in beautiful Vilnius.”

The three productions are being staged by Tanel Tatter and Veiko Esken for Apollo Film Productions (Estonia), Kristians Alhimionoks and Konstantins Maslovs for Centaur Films (Latvia), and Arturas Dvinelis and Justas Pačinskas for Filmai LT (Lithuania), while Rimants Iržikevičs is on board as a co-producer for Kush Kush Entertainment (Latvia). The films are supported by Postimees and Kanal 2, as well as film-production tax incentives in Latvia and Lithuania. All three are due to reach cinemas in early 2027, with the Estonian version opening on 15 January through HeaFilm, the Latvian adaptation following on 21 January, and the Lithuanian version set for release in February.