This week, Vienna-based sales agent Filmdelights announced it has boarded world sales on Kārlis Lesiņš’s doc Nord Express. In it, the Latvian writer-director becomes a “citizen investigator” and goes on the road to find out why, after 30 years and with only a few years to go before the intended launch of the Rail Baltica railway line, the construction of this EU-funded project is significantly behind schedule and over budget, and may never be finished at all.

Nord Express is a documentary that adopts the tone of a detective film, looking into the construction of an 870-kilometre-long high-speed railway line that started with a dream to connect the Baltic states to the rest of Europe when, in 1991, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania regained their independence from the Soviet Union.

Lesiņš follows the trail of the Rail Baltica project, trying to get some answers – what has happened, and what is happening? Travelling through all of the countries involved, he meets officials, military personnel, investigative journalists, people whose land will be expropriated, employees implementing the project, and potentially benefiting entrepreneurs, who open up to him with their versions of the story.

There are also lots of rumours and theories. Is it the Russians, the Chinese or just the banality of bureaucracy that has led to this state of affairs where the project is so behind schedule and at risk of losing EU funding? What happens if this high-profile showcase project goes awry at a time when there is an ongoing war in Europe and the EU itself is under great scrutiny? The cost to the EU could be more than just money.

“This journey began for this group of countries with the simple idea that it would be great to have a train connection through Germany, Poland and the Baltic states, from Amsterdam all the way up to Helsinki. A clean and effective way of travelling and of exchanging goods and services. Instead, what we find is this idealistic image has collided with a complicated history of shifting power spheres, stalled development and Russian espionage,” reads the official press release.

“Somehow, the humble train becomes the ultimate utopian vision of connection, environmentalism and economic development caught in a murky battle between different interest groups. The laying of train tracks becomes emblematic of the tensions inherent in the European project itself: between development and preservation, between nationalism and regionalism, between appeasement and defence. All of these pressures build as Rail Baltica attempts to carve a route straight to the heart of Europe. Trains have never been so exciting.”

Nord Express is a co-production between Latvia’s Mistrus Media, Germany’s Gebrüder Beetz, Poland’s Staron-Film and Estonia’s Allfilm for LTV and MDR/ARTE, with backing from the National Film Centre of Latvia, the Polish Film Institute, the Estonian Film Institute, Latvia’s Ministry of Culture, the Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Valsts kultūrkapitāla fonds and Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung. The pic has just enjoyed its theatrical premiere in Latvia, hosted by the Railway Museum. Filmdelights is on the lookout for festivals and TV sales.

The project’s crew includes researcher and co-writer Inese Braže, DoP Ivo Skanstiņš, editor Toms Krauklis, supervising sound editor Siim Skepast, producers Elīna Gediņa-Ducena and Gints Grūbe, and co-producers Pille Rünk, Małgorzata Staroń and Reinhardt Beetz.