Feature film
Birželis, vasaros pradžia
Raimondas Vabalas · 1970
Synopsis
Juin, début de l'été: in the heat of summer, in a small town on the banks of the Nemunas, life seems lively: the sawmill is running, a theatre company arrives on tour, the school-leavers say their goodbyes, a monument is being put up in the cemetery. Stasys Jurgaitis, who runs the sawmill, wants it to serve people and not the other way round; his boss, Naujokaitis, wants to expand it and turn the church into warehouses. The company is looking for a replacement for Anouilh's L'Alouette, and the ties between the characters remain unresolved.
Context
The filmmaker wrote the screenplay with Icchokas Meras and had to rewrite it many times; Algirdas Araminas and Jonas Abaronas operated the camera, to a score by Algimantas Apanavičius. Completed in 1969, the film was released in 1970. Attacked by Moscow critics for its depiction of decline, it was not shown in the rest of the Soviet Union. Rasa Paukštytė reads in it, beneath a light and at times bitter irony, fear of change, indifference to the future, weariness and cynicism. Digitised by the Central State Archives and restored, it was shown again in 2022.
Who it is for
A film of about an hour and a half, in Lithuanian, whose irony depends largely on the Soviet context; no French release has been recorded.
Prizes and reception
Regarded by Rasa Paukštytė as one of the most important and most original films of Lithuanian cinema of its time, and welcomed by audiences in the country.
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