Kaunas International Film Festival takes place in four Lithuanian cities: Vilnius, Kaunas, Panevėžys and Nida at the Baltic sea side. During my visit in Lithuania I went to see one of the screenings in Kaunas No One Wanted to Die by Vytautas Žalakevičius (USSR, Lithuania, 1966). It was a propaganda film condemning partisans and “blessing” the supporters of the Soviet regime in the period right after the II World War, when “freedom” just began to blossom.
Autumn scepticism, cover of Biweekly#27
by Malwina Konopacka Only the film is done in a convention of a western. It also shows people’s dilemma of the times, which inevitably brings to mind a Polish film by Andrzej Wajda Ashes and Diamonds (1958). Not to get into the films’ analysis a few unscientific after-thoughts following a short stay in Lithuania.
One: Hopefully disco-polo clips on youtube are not the only representation of Polish culture that young Lithuanians share with each other on social portals..
Two: Hopefully Poland will take example of its cultural neighbour and one day reach this beautiful state of no-billboards-on-top-of-other-billboards, as it is now.
Three: A friend says “I think the most Polish landscapes I’ve ever seen were the ones I saw when I was cycling through Lithuania.” What does it mean? Have Poland lost its nature? Behind a billboard maybe? Could be, since Lithuania hasn’t been conquered by those supermarket, furniture and other kind of selling corporations. I think I envy.
Four and that’s it: I also envy space, lack of crowds.
One more: Funny that we both have the same national dishes. It made me laugh at my “Polishness” and feel like Poles and Lithuanians are some sort of mates. The power of history or the power of food?
Biweekly#27. Editor: Agnieszka Słodownik. Cover by Malwina Konopacka. Published 5 October, 2011 at 22:39.
