Two strangers accidentally meet on a train and immediately find it hard to communicate. Too Young to Drive is a story about the hardship of finding ways to each other. Every year over ten thousand divorces are registered in Lithuania. At times when various means of communication are available to us, we are struggling to find ways and time to talk to a person close to us. Two people. One train. Different directions.
Gustoniai is a village located in the northern part of Lithuania. This place also lends its name to a contemporary art project that commenced in 2001. Every three years, artist Darius Ziura shoots a one-minute video portrait of every villager that has agreed to participate in the project. These portraits are then pieced together and edited into a film. With every episode, the project expands it’s time spectrum, thus reflecting on changes both in people’s age and lifestyle, as well as the evolution of social structures and processes, which are affected by the changing socio-political situation in the country. This project also reflects on the rapid changes in filming techniques and editing strategies, presenting the different trends of visual culture of every period.
The director shows us an unofficial Lithuania, an indestructible village, old traditions and impressive faces. In the films of Shablevičius, the village, the land, the lonely tree standing outside are often filmed in winter, when everything gets the shade of a fairy tale and a miracle, and a rider on the road brings an unexpected message. The old mythical rural worldview seems to come alive in the eyes of the audience.
Documentary about a school for kids from troubled homes.
Albertas, a lift-operator, sits all day waiting for someone to ring the elevator. His wait transcends his sense of community and symbolism, a sign that someone needs him. The film, rife with surreal humor, is the documentary version of Samuel Beckett’s ‘Waiting for Godot’.
In July 2015, a monument of the socialist period was removed from the centre of Vilnius. For several days, the artist was following the actual taking down process. The action of calibrating the cameras becomes a ritual for the object that was about to leave.
Animated short.
A successful writer, Arvid Vinge, often finds himself in difficult situations because of his weakness for women. And every time his wife Elna comes to his aid, very cleverly saving Arvid from troubles...
Travellers cycle across Iceland.
Christmas Eve, the Soviet era, everyone is working. At the State Opera and Ballet Theatre, the longest performance, Swan Lake, is coming to an end, in which Rūta dances a swan in the corps de ballet.
Martynas' peaceful morning is disrupted by the return of his roommate with a girlfriend. His curiosity soon becomes part of the couple's game.
A professor of anatomy believes that the work of scientists on humans should be more open to the public, so he lets young filmmakers into his daily life. In an attempt to look at what happens to the body after death, a portrait of the anatomist himself slowly unfolds. But how close are they allowed to get?
Animation short.
A sculptor makes sculptures and leaves them in the park.
It’s a road movie about young people who have nothing to do at night, so they drink in the car and accidentally get into a neighborhood “fight”.
Mary got acquainted with an older man – Donatas, which opens his heart to her. Donatas tried to murder himself for his beloved woman, but the bullet dented a rib and he survived.
The film portraits famous lithuanian conductor Saulius Sondeckis, reviews his creative path and personal life which are inseparable from each other.
Hilda Spalviene, a resident of Šakininkai village, is a German from Klaipėda region. The cheerful old woman, who draws a cigarette with a mouthpiece, recalls her life: before the war she lived in Germany with her husband, after the war she was exiled to Siberia. Later, she was able to go back to Germany, but she returned to Šakininkai - to the land of her parents. Although the film focuses on Hilda's story, it also subtly invites us to consider the issues of multiethnicity and national identity of the inhabitants of Klaipėda Region. Hilda, who speaks with an accent, stubbornly calls herself a local: she was born here and is ready to spend her last days here.
