Lithuania to host Ukrainian Film Days, an initiative to support Ukrainian filmmakers

On 10-11 and 14 May, Lithuania will host Ukrainian Film Days, during which the audience will be presented some of the most interesting works by Ukrainian filmmakers of recent years, telling about humanity, complex feelings, experiences in the face of war, and hope. Ukrainian Film Days are organised by the Lithuanian Film Centre, in support of the initiative of the Ukraine relief fund CinemaAid to hold marathons of films by Ukrainian filmmakers around the world.

In Lithuania, films will be shown in Vilnius at the cinema theatres Forum Cinemas Vingis and Skalvija in Kaunas at the cinema centre Cinamon, in Klaipėda at the cinema theatre Arlekinas, in Alytus at the cinema theatre Dainava, in Marijampolė at the cinema theatre Spindulys and in Gargždai at cinema theatre Minija.

By attending Ukrainian Film Days, viewers will be able to support Ukrainian filmmakers. All proceeds from ticket sales will go to the Ukrainian relief fund CinemaAid, which provides assistance to Ukrainian filmmakers and their families affected by the war.

Bad Roads (2020) by Ukrainian director Natalya Vorozhbit will open the event on 10 May at 7 p.m. at the Forum Cinemas Vingis cinema in Vilnius. The action of the film, which received recognition at the Venice International Film Critics’ Week, is set on the roads of Donbas during the war, where there are no safe spaces and no one can understand what is really going on. Four short stories comprising the film will reveal that, in a world where tomorrow may never dawn, not everyone has lost hope and strength, and even the biggest victims can take fate into their own hands.

On the same day, this exact time slot will be taken by My Thoughts Are Silent (2019), a feature by Antonio Lukich, at the Skalvija cinema centre. This feature, which received the Karlovy Vary Film Festival Award, is a visually inspiring road film full of tragicomic situations set in the Carpathian Mountains. It tells a story of a young man who receives a generous offer to contribute to creating a video game. His task is to capture the sounds of local Ukrainian animals and the song of a rare bird living in the Carpathians. The situation turns out to be not so straightforward when it transpires that his eccentric mother will be accompanying him.

On 11 May at 6.30 p.m., Forum Cinemas Vingis will screen the film Stop-Zemlia (2021) by director Katerina Gornostai awarded the Crystal Bear Youth Prize at the Berlin Film Festival. It offers an open look at the youth of Ukraine. 16-year-old Masha attends an ordinary high school in Kyiv. On top of worrying about the looming exams, Masha will be forced to leave her comfort zone when she falls in love with her classmate Sasha.

On 11 May at 9.10 p.m., at the Forum Cinemas Vingis, viewers will be able to see Alina Gorlova’s documentary This Rain Will Never Stop (2020). The story reveals an endless cycle of war and peace in which we meet 20-year-old Andriy Suleyman. Fleeing the civil war in Syria, he will start a new life with a Kurdish family in a small town in eastern Ukraine, but the military conflict will soon catch up with him.

On 14 May at 11 a.m. Forum Cinemas Vingis will invite little viewers from Ukraine to watch an adventurous animated story from Ukraine, Victor Robot (dir. Anatoliy Lavrenishyn, 2020), that will transport them to the future. This animated film for children won the Audience Award at the Odessa International Film Festival. The artificial star that is meant to supply the nearby planet with energy breaks down. The only person who can fix it is the grandfather of little Victoria, the creator of this illuminator, but he mysteriously disappears. The girl and her little robot, Viktor, set out on a search for him. Thus begins an exciting adventure of two friends. This animated film will only be shown in the original language.

All films within Ukrainian Film Days in Lithuania, except for the animated film, will be shown in the original language with Lithuanian subtitles. Ukrainian citizens who have arrived in Lithuania will be able to attend the screenings free of charge. Upon arrival at the screening of a selected film, they will need to simply present an ID.

Ukrainian Film Days in Lithuania are presented and organised by the Lithuanian Film Centre.