Starting on 31st March, Vilnius International Film Festival is one of the most anticipated cultural events in Lithuania. Among the 200 films screened during the festival, sixteen are Polish productions and co-productions, including hits such as The Lure, United States of Love, and Zud. The festival runs until 14th April.
The films are grouped into 8 different categories, screening at different locations. The New Europe – New Names competition presents new and interesting films by young artists from Eastern and Central Europe. The section features four Polish productions, representing diverse genres. Agnieszka Smoczyńska's The Lure is a vampiric musical about two mermaids working in a night club, set in 1980s Poland. These Daughters of Mine by Kinga Dębska tells a moving story about family, illness and death. Marcin Bortkiewicz's stylistically-refined Walpurgis Night explores the topics of memory and war. I, Olga Hepnarová, a Czech-Polish-Slovak co-production by Tomáš Weinreb and Peter Kazdy and based on a true story from 1976, is a record of extreme loneliness and suffering which ultimately leads to tragedy.
The Baltic Gaze competition features films from the region that present ‘an original understanding of cinematic expression and an emphasis on one's own identity.’ Selected here were Laila Pakalnina's Dawn, a Latvian-Estonian-Polish co-production inspired by the story of Pavlik Morozov, and Tomasz Wasilewski's United States of Love, a Polish-Swedish co-production set during the Polish transformation. There are also three Polish shorts competing at the festival: Marcin Podolec's animation A Documentary Film, Piotr Małecki's short documentary Out of the Blue, and Izabela Plucińska's clay animation Sexy Laundry.
Besides the competition, there are other festival sections featuring Polish films. The Masters section features 11 Minutes by Jerzy Skolimowski. The Documentaries section includes two interesting award-winning Polish co-productions: The Magic Mountain directed by Anca Damian, and Marta Mironowicz's Zud. Among the Festivals' Favourites are Marcin Wrona's Demon and Adrian Sitaru's Illegitimate, a Romanian-Polish-French feature film which explores the personal consequences of Ceausescu's regime's ban on abortion. The Discoveries section features Mexican-Polish co-production Panamerican Machinery by Joaquin del Paso and the Lithuanians Abroad section features Piano, a documentary by Lithuanian director Vita Maria Drygas. Produced in Poland, it explores the Ukrainian Euromaidan from the perspective of a musical instrument which accidently became a participant and symbol in the revolution.
The festival takes place across the five biggest Lithuanian cities (Vilnius, Klaipėda, Kaunas, Panevėžys and Šiauliai) between 31st March and 14th April. Besides the festival, between 12th and 14th April, Vilnius will host an international conference called Meeting Place – Vilnius, featuring industry professionals. Poland will be represented by actors Marian Dziędziel and Michalina Olszańska, and directors Kinga Dębska, Marcin Bortkiewicz and Tomasz Wasilewski, among others.
The full festival programme is available on its official website: kinopavasaris.lt.