Lithuanian

Synopsis
The Second World War is ending. Widower Kasparas moves in with his brother Andrius, who lives on the other side of the bay where the German occupation has already ended. Andrius’ wife Egne is still in love with Kasparas. Her relatives and a group of Lithuanian nationalists are planning on fleeing to Sweden. Egne persuades her husband that they should all go together, hoping to once again regain Kasparas’ affection after crossing the sea. But Kasparas opts to return home and border guards detain Andrius. Nine long years pass before the brothers see each other again….Read More »

“Sorrow does not come merely from contemplating death, which forces us to look into Eternity, but also from life, which compels us to confront Time”, wrote Russian philosopher Nikolai Berdyayev. Renowned Lithuanian documentarist Audrius Stonys took these words as a motto for his latest film, a meditative visual essay which portrays old people undertaking all kinds of activities, meditation and group laughter therapy. Without a single word of commentary, he creates from sophisticated, aesthetic images a compelling study of human corporeality which, in an ideal union with spiritual equilibrium, can sustain us with the pledge that old age doesn’t have to be a painful wait for the last breath.Read More »

Quote:
this poem of inexorable yearning, people look out, up, away from their little spot in the universe. The snowy miniature tableaux of boxy houses, dray horses and children tugging sleds seem oddly comforting in contrast to the exposed heights of the town bridge, the church tower and the mountaintop. This quiet meditation lulls you, then sweeps you up into the heavens.

After we finished shooting “Earth of the blind” I was holding the impression of man climbing a big chimney for two years. How does the world look like from such empyrean? What holds man between earth and sky? How does the world look like from roofs of churches? These questions were the starting point.Read More »