State Funeral (2021)

Direction: Sergey Loznitsa
Country: Lithuania / Netherlands

Assembled with previously unseen footage, propaganda taken from radio broadcasts and dramatic classical requiems (Chopin and Mendelssohn included), Sergey Loznitsa’s State Funeral is a long, mournful dirge focused on the days that preceded the funeral of Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin in March 1953.

The images, toggling between color and black-and-white, capture the vast hordes of mourners across the USSR, elucidating about the cult of personality enjoyed by an authoritarian leader who was responsible for the torture and death of millions of people. 

The deceiving machine behind Stalin and his regime praises him as the greatest genius of humanity with glorious deeds toward peace and ethnic integration. These misleading strategies are still employed by Russia today, brainwashing people and keeping them under rigid control. A weird feeling arises when you see a whole nation and its army crying for a mass murderer.

The Ukrainian director, whose penchant for desolation and violence was seen in powerful dramas like My Joy (2010) and In the Fog (2012), feels at home with the material, reconstructing the scenarios with the help of regular collaborator and editor Danielius Kokanauskis, who shortened 40 hours of footage to 135 minutes.

Packed with the faces of consternation and tears of despair, State Funeral is both remarkable and tedious.

Redirected (2014)

Directed by: Emilis Velyvis
Country: Lithuania / UK

Movie Review: “Redirected” is a gangster action comedy film made in Lithuania and UK, being the sophomore feature from Emilis Velyvis who, together with Jonas Banys, also wrote this rambunctious tale. Vinnie Jones stars as Golden Pole, the feared leader of a Londoner gang, whose esteemed ring and money becomes the aim of three greedy friends: Johnny, Tim and Ben, who just added the ‘unavailable’ Michael to their dangerous stratagem at the last minute. After seizing the ‘stuff’, the plan was to flee to Malaysia but the eruption of an Icelandic volcano thwarted their intentions, and the boys are deviated to Lithuania. Apart from the angered Michael, who was literally kidnapped to get into the plane, leaving his girlfriend in England, the other thieves just enjoy their time, partying in a local nightclub. This draws the attention of local thugs and corrupted cops, who simultaneously with the robbed gang arrived from London, will try to grab the dough and butcher its holders. The overcooked plot revealed too much impracticable coincidences and the sequence ‘caught-beaten up-captivity-escape’ was used so many times that before the first 30 minutes we’re already fed up and asking for something new. Speaking of new, “Redirected” was probably the most unoriginal film I saw last year, being a cheap imitation of the mood created by Guy Ritchie in his successful gangster films (“Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels”, “Snatch” – Vinnie Jones are on both) with the aggravating factor of adding some allegedly humorous scenes that make us more disgusted than pleased. With an anarchy that feels phony, Velyvis selected a lousy way to pass a horrible image of his country.

Vanishing Waves (2012)

Directed by: Kristina Buozyte
Country: Lithuania / others

Review: “Vanishing Waves” came up from the collaboration on writing between the Lithuanian filmmaker Kristina Buozyte and artistic director Bruno Samper. The pair already had worked together in 2008, when Buozyte released her first feature “The Colectress”. The story is centered on Lukas (Marius Jampolskis), a scientist who volunteers to be part of an experiment that involves a subconscious interaction with a comatose woman named Aurora (Jurga Jutaite). The objective was trying to understand in what emotional state Aurora could be, but Lukas broke the stipulated rule of avoiding physical interaction with the patient. Since the first transfer, Aurora attracted him in such a way that Lukas couldn’t escape to a voluptuous adventure. At the same time that he notices her strong sexual impulses, he also senses her grief and pain. Obsessed with this strange woman, he goes deeper in the experiment, without unveiling to the rest of the investigators what he really sees in those dreams and how much they affect his reality. Psychological tension arises from uncontrollable carnal scenes, making “Vanishing Waves” a hypnotic experience. The score by Peter Von Poehl also does a great job in this aspect, aided by the simple but not less effective visuals, and an interesting cinematography. The cerebral and light sci-fi presented here, makes us guess a favorable future for Buozyte whose creativity was awarded in Karlovy Vary and Neuchatel Film Festivals.

Tadas Blinda. The Beginning (2011)

Directed by: Donatas Ulvydas
Country: Lithuania

Plot: A romance blooms between a noblewoman and a common man amid a peasant revolt against the brutal Russian army.

Quick comment: With an impolite style (amateur kind) the movie features Tadas Blinda, a lithuanian rebel hero (reminding Robin Hood) who has to free his country from enemy hands and at the same time falls in love with the wrong girl. Sometimes ridicule, sometimes bold, the expressed skills weren’t enough to get on my mind.

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