How We Played the Revolution

Lithuanian photographer, the legend of Soviet Sixties' generation Vitas Luckus tragically passed away in 1987. Yet the life and times of the talented rebel still impassion and lead us to a journey questioning why, at all times, we are wary of those who are really free.

In the Cold War years of the 1970s, an American patrol boat meets a Soviet ship off the east coast of the United States for talks about fishing rights in the Atlantic. In the midst of this, while Russian commanders are aboard the U.S. Coast Guard vessel where the talks are being held, a Lithuanian sailor jumps across the ten feet of icy water separating the boats. Crash-landing on the deck of the American ship, he desperately begs for asylum. Though they try, the Americans ultimately fail to provide protection and the Soviets are allowed to capture him and brutally return him to their vessel. Thus begins a stranger-than-fiction story of imprisonment, discovery, fame, and freedom. Through rare archival footage and a dramatic first-person re-enactment of that fateful day by Simas Kudirka, the would-be defector himself, this tale of one of the biggest Cold War muddles takes us on a journey of uncanny twists of fate, and the emotional sacrifices of becoming a universal symbol of freedom.

Day after day, an elderly woman recalls the Spanish Basque country of her youth — while forgetting she is consigned to a retirement home in Chile.

Single mother Anna and her four children live in the front-line war zone of Donbas, Ukraine. While the outside world is made up of bombings and chaos, the family is managing to keep their home a safe haven, full of life and full of light. Every member of the family has a passion for cinema, motivating them to shoot a film inspired by their own life during a time of war. The creative process raises the question of what kind of power the magical world of cinema could have during times of disaster. How to picture war through fiction? For Anna and the children, transforming trauma into a work of art is the ultimate way to stay human.

Those of us who fly in airplanes probably don’t think about those who fly through Riga Airport on their own wings. But on any given day, up to 30,000 birds might visit the airport. And it would only take one… Airport wildlife control employee Mareks would like to go to church and light a candle for luck before he goes to work every day. In fact, all of us need that luck – it’s just that we’re not aware of it. Maybe that’s a good thing. Understanding wildlife that might turn up at the airport and making sure that the paths of birds, animals and airplanes don’t cross is a very real job.

Joan is 25 years old. She finished actors’ studies in Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre and was about to start acting in Russian Drama Theatre. But a war started in Ukraine and she decided to go there. Joan collects and transports materials for the soldiers to the battlefield in Ukraine. Joan tries to keep balance between being one day in war, another in peace. The film is a journey from one world to another and the line between these worlds is not clear. You must reconsider the meaning of “reality”. Everything is mixed up: the war is “there”, but it could be “here” anytime.

In a private farm, a butterfly is born only to be sold as a prop for a concert. Its journey to the music hall reflects the struggle to survive in the modern-day civilization.

A touching tribute to the distinguished Lithuanian cultural figure Irena Veisaitė. Having survived the Holocaust and lost her loved ones, but refusing to give in to hatred, she chose forgiveness over revenge, dialogue over silence, and love over hatred, becoming an inspiration to many.

Arturas Barysas-Baras - film artist, actor collector of music, literature, etc, the leader and vocal of avantgarde music band "And Everything what is Beautiful is Beautiful", Vilnius citizen. Some people thought he was a simple tramp. Others considered him liberty ambassador sending to the world signs of freedom - form creative ideas to western books and music records. He was one of the most vivid soviet Lithuanian underground people who were not afraid to declare freedom when all of its forms were forbidden. But when soviet system collapsed he could not find himself in a world because "freedom" does not like to be put I in any kind of system no matter how liberal it is. Five years after his death Baras' best friends meet to find the answers who was Baras and how has his beloved Vilnius changed being without him.