Virto ąžuolai

When the Oaks Were Falling was the first feature film by director Gytis Lukšas meant to be shown at the cinemas. However, it already contained some signature characteristics of his directing style that could be seen in all his later films.

One of them is nurturing the relationship between the national literature and cinema. The majority of Lukšas’ films are adaptations of books by Lithuanian authors, and the director always aims to preserve the essence of the book, turn the text into a compelling visual, and create memorable characters.

Judging from his earlier TV film Sleigh-Bell based on the works of Kazys Saja and commissioned by the Central Television, it seemed that Lukšas was more attracted to a poetic cinema enriched with the elements of folklore. Choosing the realistic prose of Juozas Baltušis for his big screen début was a serious challenge for a young director. When the Oaks Were Falling was based on a short story from Baltušis’ book Sold Summers (original title Parduotos vasaros).

It follows the dramatic story of one family in a Lithuanian village during the inter-war period. A mother (Eugenija Šulgaitė) is dying in a wealthy family of farmers. She bids her three sons, her oldest Stanislovas (Juozas Jaruševičius), her second son Laurynas (Jonas Pakulis) and her youngest Antanas (Vladas Bagdonas), to live in peace and harmony and says one of them has to marry their hard-working and smart servant girl Kazytė (Nijolė Lepeškaitė), without whom “they will be lost”. All three brothers, especially Laurynas, want to marry the pretty Kazytė, but the mother gives her blessing to Antanas, nicknamed Chicken. Her decision instantly sparks disagreement and fights among the brothers. Meanwhile, Kazytė has her own intentions and tries to push the events towards her desired outcome. Her heart longs for a farm worker Klemensas (Juozas Kisielius), and she is determined to do anything for his love. Thus, the events slowly wind up and start moving like a terrible bulldozer that will eventually crush everyone’s lives.

The whole film is like a compressed spring. As the plot develops, it gradually releases and moves the events. The suspense is constantly growing. The critics even called When the Oaks Were Falling the first Lithuanian thriller. The suppressed emotions and unfulfilled expectations and aspirations of the characters make the film deeply dramatic. Even though this is a non-epic drama of feelings, these feelings are very strong, real, and genuine, and peak at the highest intensity level. They force the characters into fatal decisions that will eventually destroy the whole family.

The characters being so complex, the actors had to be selected with the highest precision. This film was a successful cinema début of its actors Vladas Bagdonas, Kostas Smoriginas and Violeta Podolskaitė, showcasing their potential. It was also one of the early roles of the brilliant cinema and theatre actor Juozas Kisielius, who unfortunately left us too soon. Juozas Jaruševičius and Jonas Pakulis also had memorable and important roles.

Kazytė feels like a Lady Macbeth of rural Lithuania here. Actress Lepeškaitė created a tragic and complex character. Kazytė is fighting for her happiness and love, her place under the sun, and is doing it in a clever and predatory manner. Every time she needs to “fell” another “oak”, i.e., to get rid of one of the brothers, we can see glee in her eyes, and a sly smile distorts her face. Humans need true love, and nothing can stop Kazytė from seeking it. But she feeds herself illusions, and when they are shattered, in the final scene, we see a close-up of her face full of deep bitterness.

Several seemingly minor characters are actually important in the film: a poor weirdo Untulis (Alfonsas Dobkevičius), a young shepherd (Aras Lukšas) watching the events through the child’s eyes, or an old man behind the Easter table speaking about God’s punishment. These scenes soften the highly dramatic tone of the film, add some folk wisdom, sincerity, or even humour.

The score by Giedrius Kuprevičius complements the director’s vision. Special focus on the sound and music is evident in all Lukšas’ films. The rich sound of a symphonic orchestra conducted by Saulius Sondeckis follows the tradition of “big music” for films, according to the film’s composer.

During the filming of When the Oaks Were Falling, the cinematographer Algimantas Mockus demonstrated his incredible stubbornness as well as his creative and technical resourcefulness. Mockus wanted to prove that he can achieve the quality of Kodak even with the Russian Svema film. His camera creates painting-like portraits of the characters burning with almost Shakespearean lust and desire. The poetical dramatic landscapes of the Lithuanian countryside filmed by him reflect the emotional states of the characters and create the mood required in each scene.

One of the lightest and the most touching scenes is Easter morning, which, incidentally, was filmed on the actual Easter day. The film managed to convey the special mood of that day that brightened up the souls of all main characters. Unfortunately, this day full of happiness is followed by a terrible tragedy, which will begin the “felling of oaks”. Its premonition is the image of the deceased father (Kazys Vitkus) walking hatless across the fields. The director combines the realistic style with dreams and visions.

The film includes a few more religious ceremonies such as a church wedding and a funeral. It was likely the authority of the well-known writer Baltušis that protected these scenes from the censorship of the Soviet ideologists so deep in the Soviet era. The censors only rejected the title and released the film as The Wreath of Oak Leaves in the other republics of the Soviet Union. Back then, it was possible to present the film to the guardians of ideology as a critique of the countryside bourgeoisie.

However, director Lukšas will return to rural Lithuania in almost all of his major films: The Last Autumn of Childhood, Summer Is Over in Autumn, Yesterday and Forever, Vortex, and others. He always made sure to avoid any ideologisation and clichés and focused on the lives of people, the drama they experienced, and a strong bond between man and nature.

Neringa Kažukauskaitė