Lithuania
Arunas Matelis in person!
BEFORE FLYING BACK TO EARTH
(PRIES PARSKRENDANT I ZEME)
2005, Arunas Matelis, Lithuania, 52 min.
THE WIDOWS’ COAST
(NASLIU PAKRANTE)
2006, Janina Lapinskaité, Lithuania, 26 min.
A children’s leukemia ward in a Vilnius hospital is the subject of Lithuania’s first Academy Award submission (and the recipient, at the time of writing, of a stratospheric 9.8 rating on IMDb.com). Do not expect anything morbid or mawkish; this high-spirited, lyrical documentary is close in spirit to Truffaut in its portrayal of its indomitable, often mischievous subjects. Winner of the DGA Award for Best Documentary Feature,
Preceded by THE WIDOWS’ COAST: 2006 festival guest Lapinskaité (LAND OF GLASS) displays her stunning pictorial sense in this poetic portrait of women living on a gorgeously desolate stretch of the Baltic seacoast. Both films in Lithuanian with English subtitles. Both in Beta SP video, courtesy of Lithuanian Film Center. (MR)
Director Arunas Matelis is tentatively scheduled to appear at the March 11 screening; phone 312-846-2600 for confirmation.