Discoveries from Lithuania World Cinema

Travellers cycle across Iceland.

Cycling through Kyrgyzstan is a documentary adventure film about a 2015 cycling trip of five Lithuanians through the Tian Shan mountains. It was no ordinary journey, and it was a journey that captivated the travellers, who had seen a lot of it.

A group of people return to see the feast.

A young couple is coming back after their honeymoon. On the way home they find themselves in many unexpected situations that are possible to get out of only if you love each other a lot. It is a short film about love. Have you ever seen such one? Sure exactly one like this?

The film crew, as if being detectives try to understand how their country became independent about a hundred years ago. Starting from facts and a little dull talks with historians, the search of information (knowledge) takes them to Paris where they discover even more philosophical questions related not only to the independence, but as well to the concept of freedom in general. “We have started making a movie about the freedom conference of 1919 and the role of Lithuanians in it. But making this movie we have stumbled upon lots of ideas. We have started asking ourselves, what is freedom, and what is the difference between the territorial and personal, or self-freedom?”

A film about the making of Tadas Blinda: The Beginning.

Four friends get together in a spirituality day camp for nature-hungry girls. Still, this practice seems suspicious to one girl, but she is persuaded by other friends and tries to adopt the teacher's methods.

Lithuanian medics battling COVID-19

Music video by Titas Sūdžius for Solo Ansamblis.

“Sisters” is sensitively and beautifully told story of two families of Pomerancai and Petrauskai who were scattered by brutal events of The World War II and difficult, unexpected challenges of life which wounded their destinies. Story focuses on rescue of the famous violinist Danute Pomerancaitė who born in Kaunas Ghetto. Vilnius Jewish Public Library

The story of a grave under the roots of a big oak. Three unknown soldiers rest in it- two Russians and a German. After more than 70 years, a group of archaeologists decided to go on a quest to explore this.

Lithuanians who experienced the horrors of the war, calling themselves Little Birds of God (Dievo Pauksteliai stands for DP), laid the foundations of life in exile in the Displaced Persons camps and laid the foundations for further Lithuanian activities in emigration.

The film reflects the care of recreation and preservation of the cultural heritage of Vilnius Jews shown by our state and international community. lfc.lt

Documentary movie by Dailius Dargis about 6th criminal police unit in Lithuania, who were the first ones to fight against Lithuanian mafia in the early 90s.

By casting its gaze to the periphery of Vilnius, Užupis, the film follows the tradition of the first generation of independent filmmakers. The result is the mute portrayal of a furnace caretaker, Jonas Valeiša, and a graphic artist, Šarūnas Leonavičius.

Can you imagine a tourist attraction where people come to see a dying forest? Where they are not only observers, but also the ones being observed and heard by the black birds?

Young man, but already drug addict for a decade, Vytis, after finding himself at the threshold of death was checked in a rehab by his grandparents. Now Vytis is able to piece together his ‘puzzle’ of life. Here it comes down to a choice.

During the Swedish-Lithuanian war 300 years ago, the bell of the Plateliai church was apparently dismantled and then left to sink at the centre of the eponymous lake. Stonys followed a scientific diving expedition organised for the purpose of finding the disappeared bell and thus confirming what seems like a popular legend. Like in Countdown, the filmmaker widens his consideration of collective memory and the bringing into crisis of belief.

Artūras finds his serenity by reviving discounted plants in his garden. Considering the Lithuanian climate, one of those plants is an exotic one— Amorphophallus. It is known for its distinctive smell, which reminds of rotting flesh. Artūras, however, is used to this, as he works as an autopsy technician. His sensitive view of the world merges the contrasts of both life and death. He shares his genuine thoughts, buried beneath work that most of us find resentful. Just like the smell of the corpse flower.

A lazy teenager finally gets around to cleaning his room.

A satirical drama based on a man who's never lost. Always the Perfectionist of the Year, the youngest ever to win a Perfectlimpyad. All his days start the same: wake up with a Perfect outfit, make an egg who adores you, look at the Perfect award wall right in front of you and read the news, looking for yourself, obviously. One day Saulius reads about an observation chair, which is out in the park – a place where you can judge others and feel better about yourself. However, this day is different: Saulius gets a Sun stroke, which turns his world upside down. He joins Narcissus Anonymous – but how long can he stay there?

Reporter Petras Obolionis travels to the town of Rumšiškės

Biographer Alexander Vasin embarks on a long and winding archival journey, examining the child of the Great Pohulianka, the fearless war pilot, an exceptionally talented writer Roman Kacew, who wrote under the pseudonym Romain Gary.

A tiny car accident caused by an impoverished 75-year-old Ona escalates into a scheme of financial and psychological racketeering executed by the rich Giedrius. Used to iniquity, first Ona suffers but eventually loses it and cooks up a revenge plan, which she executes and restores the justice - be it's only for one night.

A documentary is based on authentic witness stories and unique archival shots. The main heroes of the film, the then 20-year-olds, after 25 years, remember the events of January 1991, which led to their further fate. The stories are illustrated by the footage stored in personal archives and not yet seen before, which reveals the events of the night of January 13 and the eve of January. In 1991, the filmed amateur shots speak witnesses of the events at the TV tower and the Radio and Television Committee. As a result of the injuries, they testify directly from the hospital wards about the events of the seizure of the most important objects of the country.

After a party, a young drunken man encounters a strange individual in an alleyway. However, as time passes, he realizes that he may not be as human as it initially seemed. An adaptation of the first episode of the hit horror podcast The Magnus Archives.

What songs do birds sing? How is a melody made?

Gustas (25) jumps out of Karolis’ (25) moving car – as if trying to escape a dream. He acts strangely and begs to be woken up. Karolis puts him back in the car. Karolis’ sister Milda (23) joins them. Gustas calls his sister – no answer. The three end up in an underground club. The music hypnotizes Gustas. He calls again – still no answer. Later, Milda and Gustas return to his home. In bed lies his sister’s lifeless body. Milda is shocked. Gustas calmly says, “Don’t worry. It’s just a dream.”

A careful gardener is trying to expel a mole that has invaded his plot. That was not the case - the animal is not so simple!

A time when humanity as a whole refuses to common perception. The time when God is dead, and the man left to his own fate, dies hard, and looks for answers. The way man should go to his unique vision of the world is based on the testing method, how many of his explorations he can afford. If you go too far, you won’t come back. This is the price paid by an individual trying to investigate the limits of body and mind whims. Here comes the clash between the body and mind, between the individual and society, between morality and what is not compatible with it, after all, and between life and death.

The theme of the film is “naiveté”. I do understand “naiveté” as an initial state to be creative for any beginner in any field of arts. Without naiveté any young person, probably, would not choose to be an artist, so to be condemned for potential failure.

A man reflects on the loss his father.

This is the big story of a tiny country of just 2.8 million people. It tells the story of the path of scientists, of the unforgettable eureka moments, of unique inventions that are both astonishing in their abundance and engaging in the story of a new, safer, and more sustainable world that we can build together.

To break image curses, a filmic time capsule is opened early and introspective musings meant for the future seep out

The film reviews all of Lithuania's most important lighthouses: those that still exist and those that have been lost, those that can be seen and those that have been covered by the dust of oblivion.

Unrelated strangers find out that they've got something in common. It's the realisation that words cannot express what is truly going on inside them. Therefore, when words end, the image begins to speak.

The mysterious history and creative legacy of the 1981-1989 group "Sa-Sa." The biggest Lithuanian post-punk music enigma.

A heroic epic about Gintaras Karosas, about Lithuania's struggle for freedom in 1989-1993. And at the same time, the creation of the Gintaras Karosas Sculpture Park.

As an esoteric, Soviet-era self-improvement practice, coding involves following instructions from a mysterious advisor – mind like a computer, programmable.

A documentary film about the writer Alė Rūta.

Deividas, a journalism student with social anxiety disorder, goes into the streets to interview random people.

Film school students try to tackle the problem of the missing additional crosswalk to the Sluškai Palace.

Trilogy combines documentary, acting and animation to tell three stories: effects of various forces on human beings; the eating habits of different personalities; pathetic and omnipresent attempts of people to seek an immortality.

"Cycling Across Tajikistan" is not only about the kilometers cycled, the challenges overcome or the conflicts endured. It talks about the meaning of "freedom" inside the hearts of cyclists, as well as the locals met on the way.

Back in 2019 an extraordinary challenge took place for cyclists, called - Epic Hydra. The goal - cycle 800 km over sandy and brushes filled trail, cross rivers and streams taking no more than 5 days. For some - it was a race, for others an opportunity to experience Lithuania's natural beauty and a good way to test themselves. There was no monetary or any other price waiting for the finishers except for a t-shirt and self-satisfaction. The film "Challenge Yourself - Epic Hydra" follows a 62 year old Vitalijus, who despite his age, was determined to test himself and as he said himself: "see how old I've gotten". The only fear he had was the fear of not making it to finish. The 38 minutes of the film have the sun, the rain, the tough and not so much bits, but the the thing that it has a lot of - the will to challenge oneself!

A travel experience, an encounter with other codes and other gods in a contemporary Lithuania. In the country where legends and pagan practices have survived the influence of the Catholic religion and later the Soviet bloc to feed a folklore still tenacious, weighs the strange sensation of presences belonging to another world. If one takes the time to listen and look, the forest seems inhabited, filled with stories and life. This narrative is part of a search of the other and of different spiritualities. Where some indulge in rituals borrowed from Mongolian traditions while others perpetuate a cultural heritage. If Laima, the mother, the one of destiny, of good and bad fortune, still exists in the Lithuanian culture, the ideology of the Soviet bloc is only a painful page of history.

The film features excerpts from conferences on the preservation of Holocaust remembrance, as well as authentic documentary footage from Lithuanian Jewish life.

While seeking to reveal the beauty of the Gregorian chant tradition and the secret of its appeal, the film asks what could be considered as sacred time in our secular lives. In the prevailing chaos, it is rather hard to keep direction. Caught in that hastle and bustle, you end asking yourself what to fill the day with, so that at night before sleep you could feel not a fleeting and fictitious, but solidly stable meaning, so that you could fall asleep with a feeling of calmness that you have lived a day being useful, and not only for yourself. Jokūbas Vilius Tūras was born in Zarasai, Lithuania in 1971, currently doing doctoral studies at Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre. His feature debut „Dreaming the Path“ (2013) was awarded the National Film Award winner for the Best Documentary of the Year. „About Jonas“ (2016) gained National Film Awards nominations for the Best Director and the Best Film of the Year.

Documentary film, which, based on the stories of the participants and witnesses of the uprising, the comments and assessments of historians and scientists, reproduces the development of the events of that time with authentic archival material, reveals their tragedy and significance for today's Lithuanian history.

The manifestation of video art as a superior art form to a pictorial art.

Jule is 27. She is always late everywhere. She is about to become a judge, but the fact that she is always late gets in the way. She starts going to driving lessons that should help. Here she meets a driving instructor Arturas.

"Being part of the Soviet Union changed the way people lived their lives. My grandmother's memoirs analyze the reasons why Palanga feels isolated and alone and its inhabitants blocked and lost."

He is Georgian. She is Lithuanian. They meet in Moscow for two hours - To break up. But the hotel is not the best place for breaking up, when your neighbors are making love.

The first Lithuanian puppet-animated sound film