A Trip Across Misty Meadows
Henrikas Šablevičius
A poetic farewell to a slow, narrow-gauge train that recalls the idyllic times of independent Lithuania.
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A Trip Across Misty Meadows
Documentary Film
Lithuania
1973
11 minutes
subtitles:
English
A farewell to a slow, narrow-gauge train that recalls the idyllic times of independent Lithuania. The story was originally to be told through silent images only, but following preview screenings the filmmaker was instructed to add a voiceover. The criticism that “the film’s central hero cannot be a railway” led to the addition of a “human character” – the train’s overseer Povilas. Despite this, Šablevičius’s film remains a shining example of the Lithuanian poetic documentary thanks to its unique cinematic language and visual allegories conveying a deep connection to the past, something that the architects of the “new life” struggled to erase.
Autumn Snow
Valdas Navasaitis
The first snow of autumn and the last minutes of an earthling coincide. A poetic-impressionist study on fall, nature, and life.
Autumn Snow
Documentary Film
Lithuania
1992
18 minutes
subtitles:
English
The first snow of autumn and the last minutes of an earthling coincide. A poetic-impressionist study on fall, nature, and life. The end comes like winter itself: organic, cyclical – and sublime.
How We Played the Revolution
Giedrė Žickytė
In 1984, the beginning of perestroika in the USSR, a group of architects decided to organise a band for a New Year’s party joke in Kaunas, Lithuania.
How We Played the Revolution
Documentary Film
France,
Lithuania
2011
72 minutes
subtitles:
English
In 1984, the beginning of perestroika in the USSR, a group of architects decided to organise a band for a New Year’s party joke in Kaunas, Lithuania. What started as a joke grew into the “Singing Revolution”: the new exciting rock band “Antis” became famous by word of mouth. Their imposing make-up and props, stylised show and lyrics created a pervasive caricature of Soviet propaganda, perfectly discrediting the absurdity of the Soviet reality.
In Memory of a Day Gone By
Šarūnas Bartas
Šarūnas Bartas’s documentary is one of the first works by the “break generation” of Lithuanian filmmakers who debuted in the 1990s.
In Memory of a Day Gone By
Documentary Film
Lithuania
1990
39 minutes
subtitles:
_without dialogue / subtitles
Credits
Šarūnas Bartas
Valdas Naudžius, Artūnas Leita
Nina Romanovskaja, Ariadna Gruodienė
Šarūnas Bartas
Romualdas Fedaravičius
Šarūnas Bartas’s documentary is one of the first works by the “break generation” of Lithuanian filmmakers who debuted in the 1990s. Marginalised members of society and people with disabilities, invisible in earlier documentaries, came to be principle characters in the new generation’s works, while settings shifted from the romanticised countryside to grimy cities. The shift in aesthetics corresponded to deep changes in the country and represented an attempt by young filmmakers to come to grips with the new reality and find their place in it.
No Foe Can Scare Us
Edmundas Zubavičius
In director Edmundas Zubavičius’s filmed feuilleton, we observe the absurd reality unfolding in the rehearsals for an imitated nuclear attack of “an enemy behind the border”.
No Foe Can Scare Us
Documentary Film
Lithuania
1978
11 minutes
subtitles:
English
Credits
Edmundas Zubavičius
Romualdas Fedaravičius
Romas Damulis
Edmundas Zubavičius
In director Edmundas Zubavičius’s filmed feuilleton, we observe the absurd reality unfolding in the rehearsals for an imitated nuclear attack of “an enemy behind the border”. The characters of the film are the inhabitants of a small village in Samogitia. They are participating in civil protection exercises and preparing for a civil defence competition. However, although the danger of a new war has escalated and the civil protection exercises have been organized regularly, apparently no one has taken the threat seriously.
Sensitivity as Bread
Edmundas Zubavičius
The Kaunas Veterinary Academy is at the centre of one of the early films by Edmundas Zubavičius. The observation of the everyday life there reveals a longing for human empathy.
Sensitivity as Bread
Documentary Film
Lithuania
1979
10 minutes
subtitles:
English
Credits
Lithuanian Film Studio
Edmundas Zubavičius
Donatas Buklys
Vidmantas Kazlauskas
The Kaunas Veterinary Academy is at the centre of one of the early films by the particularly productive Lithuanian documentary filmmaker Edmundas Zubavičius. The observation of the everyday life there reveals a longing for human empathy – almost as if it was a prayer. The refined connection between image and sound is offset by the poetic cinematic language. Sequences of realistic scenes encourage you to contemplate the link between man and nature.
Ten Minutes Before the Flight of Icarus
Arūnas Matelis
This film is considered to be a keynote piece for the post-Soviet generation of Lithuanian filmmakers who rejected straightforward declarativity.
Ten Minutes Before the Flight of Icarus
Documentary Film
Lithuania
1990
11 minutes
subtitles:
English
This film is considered to be a keynote piece for the post-Soviet generation of Lithuanian filmmakers who rejected straightforward declarativity and immersed themselves in the silent observation of reality. Arūnas Matelis traces the beginnings of post-Soviet transformation not in the main squares in Vilnius but in the daily life of the inhabitants of Užupis – a historical quarter of the old town of Vilnius. The film, awarded at the Oberhausen, Bornholm and Pärnu film festivals, was also screened at the Cannes “International Critics’ Week” in 2005.
The Dreams of Centenarians
Robertas Verba
Ironically, “The Dreams of Centenarians” was submitted as a feature for the centenary of Lenin’s birth. It was the simplest way to secure authorisation to film old people (some of whom were actually a hundred years old).
The Dreams of Centenarians
Documentary Film
Lithuania
1969
17 minutes
subtitles:
English
Credits
Lithuanian Film Studio
Robertas Verba
Algimantas Apanavičius
Algirdas Tarvydas, Robertas Verba
Rimtautas Šilinis
Ironically, “The Dreams of Centenarians” was submitted as a feature for the centenary of Lenin’s birth. It was the simplest way to secure authorisation to film old people (some of whom were actually a hundred years old). The filmmaker also satisfied the Soviet censors’ requirement to focus on working-class people rather than the intelligentsia – the centenarians of the film are indeed ordinary Lithuanian country people. Still, ideologically-minded critics of the time objected to the film’s choice of “unsightly” subjects (a transgression against the USSR’s cult of youth and fitness) and “lack of optimism.”
The Earth of the Blind
Audrius Stonys
Audrius Stonys, another “break generation” filmmaker, won international recognition with “The Earth of the Blind”, which came to serve as the generation’s manifesto.
The Earth of the Blind
Documentary Film
Lithuania
1992
26 minutes
subtitles:
English
Audrius Stonys, another “break generation” filmmaker, won international recognition with “The Earth of the Blind”, which came to serve as the generation’s manifesto and was lauded in Lithuania and abroad. In 1992 the film was awarded the European Film Academy’s Felix Prize for Best Documentary. Stonys was a disciple of documentary filmmaker Henrikas Šablevičius, and the latter’s influence is present in “The Earth of the Blind”, a picture that weaves the new generation’s “silent” aesthetics and novel protagonists into the visual poetics of their predecessors.
The Field of Magic
Mindaugas Survila
“The Field of Magic” is a documentary poem about people living for over two decades in the Būda forest near the abandoned Kariotiškės dump, 40 kilometres from Vilnius.
The Field of Magic
Documentary Film
Lithuania
2011
61 minutes
subtitles:
English
Credits
Jurga Gluskinienė, Giedrė Beinoriūtė
Mindaugas Survila
Mindaugas Survila
Danielius Kokanauskis
Saulius Urbanavičius
This is the first film by director Mindaugas Survila, originally trained as a biologist, to tell a story of people, not animals. “The Field of Magic” is a documentary poem about people living for over two decades in the Būda forest near the abandoned Kariotiškės dump, 40 kilometres from Vilnius. The result of four year's work, the film captures the perspective of the dump dwellers by telling the story of a disintegrating community: its uniqueness, daily rhythm, peculiar way of life, everyday joys and sorrows.
The Old Man and the Land
Robertas Verba
One of the iconic early examples of Lithuanian poetic documentary cinema. The hero of Verba’s film, a white-moustached old man, tells his life story.
The Old Man and the Land
Documentary Film
Lithuania
1965
17 minutes
subtitles:
English
One of the iconic early examples of Lithuanian poetic documentary cinema. Documentaries and newsreels of the time were expected to show country folk rejoicing in their improving Soviet existence and in the new achievements of collective farming, their experiences usually conveyed by voiceover narration. The hero of Verba’s film, a white-moustached old man, is different. By allowing his protagonist to speak for himself, to narrate his own life story, including its woes, and to talk about his children and the love he feels for his wife, Verba created a unique profile of a genuine man from an old Lithuanian (as opposed to Soviet) village.
