Naturally continuing the tradition of national cinema The high artistic status of Lithuanian cinema is a rmed by the National Cultural and were also the  rst  lms created by the generation of direc- Artistic Awards presented to Š. Bartas, A. Stonys, and A. Matelis. Despite di culties with tors in independent Lithuania: Praėjusios dienos atminimui  nancing, it remains creative and varied. A personal cinematic chronicle is continuously (In Remembrance of Day Gone By, 1989) by Šarūnas Bartas, created by Romas Lileikis, various aspects of social isolation are explored by Kristijonas Dešimt minučių prieš Ikaro skrydį (Ten Minutes Before the Vildžiūnas, Giedrė Beinoriūtė explores various genres of cinema and more and more Flight of Icarus, 1991) by Arūnas Matelis, Neregių žemė (Earth young  lmmakers make their debuts. Animated  lms, pioneered by Zenonas Šteinys and of the Blind, 1992) by Audrius Stonys and Valdas Navasaitis’ Ilja Bereznickas, almost did not have the conditions to allow it to develop further, but the Lithuanian Rudens sniegas (Autumn Snow, 1992). Their common fea- debut  lm of Vilnius Academy of Arts graduate Reda Bartkutė Toming, Kaltė (Guilt, 2013), ture — ambiguous visual associations, slow observation was the  rst Lithuanian  lm invited to participate in the Annecy International Animated Collectors and the intensity of internal emotions. But in their voice Film Festival. Berlin Film Festival “Panorama” in 2011 began with the debut of anthropol- this cinema was already di erent, distancing itself from the ogist Mantas Kvedaravičius — a  lm about the Chechen tragedy, Barzakh, the creation of Coins so-called objective reality, sharing the author’s expression, which was supported by the famous Finnish director Aki Kaurismäki. conveying individual worldview. Although the new Lithu- anian cinema was not engaged socially, the melancholy of Lithuanian cinema’s artistic identity is beautifully described in these words by Arūnas 10 LITAS COIN DEDICATED TO CINEMA irreversibility that encased it, the feeling of degradation, Matelis: “Our  lms come from similar homes. From not speaking, the growth of silence. FROM THE SERIES “LITHUANIAN CULTURE” weathering that pervades the image, re ected its own In  lms one can feel the shared experiences of us all. Few can understand our feelings, time and revealed the worldview of the social fracture for example, regarding January 13th. But even the most banal song, which was heard Silver Ag 925 generation. The individualism of creation in part was driv- in those days, can unite us. We are from another island. You can neither run nor not run Quality proof en by the fact that cinema was not systematically support- from it. In our experience there have been moments that are important and meaningful Diameter 28.70 mm ed by the state and ended up at the fringes of cultural poli- for only us. And those moments will determine intangible commonality — of sight or Weight 12.44 g cy. Along with independence almost all of the well-known silence.” The edge of the coin bears the inscription: cinematic masters had to withdraw from active work, LIETUVOS KULTŪRA*KINAS while the younger generation learned to create  lms by Linas Vildžiūnas (LITHUANIAN CULTURE*CINEMA) producing them, founding studios, searching for foreign Designed by Rūta Ničajienė partners, etc. According to A. Stonys, cinema in Lithuania is created through blood and many compromises. Mintage 4,000 Issued in 2014 Lithuanian cinema survived with the help of its artistic Information is available at the Bank of Lithuania quality and international recognition. The pure visual sug- Tel. +370 5 268 0316 gestion of Šarūnas Bartas’  lms Trys dienos (Three Days, E-mail [email protected] 1991), Koridorius (Corridor, 1995), Mūsų nedaug (Few of www.lb.lt Us, 1996), Namai (The House, 1997) and Laisvė (Freedom, 2000), became a synonym of Lithuanian cinema abroad, although they were often  lmed outside of Lithuania with the help of French and Portuguese producers. A. Stonys’ 10 LITAS COIN DEDICATED TO CINEMA The coin was minted at the UAB Lithuanian Mint FROM THE SERIES “LITHUANIAN CULTURE” 1992  lm Neregių žemė was awarded the Felix prize as www.lithuanian-mint.lt the best European documentary  lm. A. Matelis’ touch- Lithuanian Collectors Coins ing  lm about the little patients of the leukemia ward at © Lietuvos bankas, 2014 Santariškės Children’s Hospital, Prieš parskrendant į Žemę The coins were photographed by Arūnas Baltėnas (Before Flying Back to Earth, 2005), earned multiple awards Designed by Liudas Parulskis at international  lm festivals and in 2007 the director was This publication uses photographs from the  lms Herkus Mantas, Jausmai, Maža išpažintis, Niekas nenorėjo honoured with a Directors Guild of America Award for ar- mirti, Skrydis per Atlantą, Trys dienos, and Velnio nuotaka, from the archives of the magazine Kinas. tistic achievements in documentary cinema. Published by the Bank of Lithuania, Gedimino pr. 6, LT-01103 Vilnius Printed by UAB Lodvila, www.lodvila.lt, LT-08125 Vilnius The young independent Lithuanian state in the 1920s–30s was unable to create its Lithuanian cinematography was not abundant, but it was very diverse and ambitious. Cinema of Lithuania own cinematography, while the Lithuanian  lm studio founded during the Soviet re- In the psychological drama Birželis, vasaros pradžia (June, the Beginning of Summer, 1969) gime, which in the post-war period only made  lm chronicles and documentaries, per- Raimondas Vabalas, together with the writer Icchokas Meras, raised sensitive issues of social Cinema is the only one of the arts that does not have a patron muse, yet the exact formed mainly propaganda functions. The few “Lithuanian-themed” features that ap- responsibility while this director’s perseverance in restoring the achievement of S. Darius th date of its birth is well known — 28 of December, 1895. On that evening, two broth- peared in that time were directed by directors from Russia who arti cially included the and S. Girėnas in his  lm Skrydis per Atlantą (Flight over the Atlantic, 1983) was comparable ers, Louis and Auguste Lumière, in the basement of the Grand Café on Boulevard des “local” colours into schemes of socialist realism. to a civic feat and the  lm was met with appreciation by audiences. The  rst and so far only Capucines in Paris, presented a public viewing of moving pictures. They called their historical epic  lm, Herkus Mantas (1972), was directed by Marijonas Giedrys. Algirdas Aram-  rst camera and projector a “cinematograph”. This invention, which astounded its au- The sudden breakthrough of real Lithuanian cinema was sudden and unexpected. inas subtly explored the issues of a young person maturing in the  lms Kai aš mažas buvau dience, was destined to become not only the most popular form of entertainment of At the end of the 1960s, the Lithuanian  lm studio saw the rise of a new generation of (When I Was a Child, 1968) and Maža išpažintis (A Small Confession, 1971). Arūnas Žebriūnas th the 20 c. but also a  ne art, which perfected the distinctive, evocative language of young  lm directors, supplemented by students returning from the Moscow Institute of went in the direction of genre searching, and based on Kazys Boruta’s novel Baltaragio images. Although a quick end was predicted more than once for the so-called Tenth Cinematography. This was the generation of directors Vytautas Žalakevičius, Arūnas Že- malūnas (Baltaragis’ Mill) he created the stylish, still-popular musical Velnio nuotaka (Devil’s Muse, especially with the invention of television,  lms even now continue to rule over briūnas, Raimondas Vabalas, Almantas Grikevičius, Marijonas Giedrys, Algirdas Araminas, Bride, 1974) and the lyrical comedy Riešutų duona (Walnut Bread, 1977), based a story by the public’s feelings and minds, while the art of cinema is seen as an integral part of cinematographers Jonas Gricius, Algimantas Mockus, Janas Tomaševičius, documentary Saulius Šaltenis. Algimantas Puipa brought a breath of fresh air into Lithuanian cinema, with every nation’s culture.  lm directors Robertas Verba, Henrikas Šablevičius. They searched for ways to express his dramatic  lms Velnio sėkla (The Devil’s Seed, 1979), Moteris ir keturi jos vyrai (The Woman through cinema the distinctive Lithuanian worldview, reveal the dramatic theme of post- and Her Four Men, 1983) and Amžinoji šviesa (Eternal Light, 1987), giving them a sense of the The Lumière brothers’ “cinematograph” reached Lithuania relatively quickly — the war. Drawing inspiration from national literature and art, this time they created an origi- grotesque, paradoxicality, stylistic deformation.  rst showing in the Vilnius botanical gardens (now the Bernardine Gardens) terrace nal style of Lithuanian cinema, labelled by slow, thoughtful narrative, poetic metaphors rd theatre took place on July 3 1897. After a decade, Kaunas became the birthplace of and the evocative plasticism of monochrome. Of course, the rise of Lithuanian cinema In 1965 the cinematographer Robertas puppet animation — Władysław Starewicz, who later was a famous director in Russia coincided with the easing of the political system, the so-called “thawing”. The 1970s was Verba created a humble documentary and France, in 1910 created here the  rst spatial animation  lm Battle of the Lucanus the heyday of cinema in Russia and the other Soviet republics; however, Lithuanian, as The novella Paskutinis šūvis (The Last Shot), having created a broad portrait of a girl in a pol- with the symbolic title Senis ir žemė (The Cervus. However, in the context of national culture, due to unfavourable historical and well as Georgian, cinema stood out even in this bright spectrum, more than once it gar- ka-dot dress, expressing the contraposition of the pure world of a child against an adult’s Old Man and the Land), which gave rise economic circumstances, cinema only became more popular half a century later. nered acclaim at festivals held in the Baltic States, the Soviet Union, and internationally. harsh world, was expanded on by Arūnas Žebriūnas in his  lms Paskutinė atostogų diena to the current of Lithuanian artistic doc- (The Girl and the Echo, 1964), awarded the Grand Prize at the Cannes Youth Film Festival, umentary, which continued for almost It was not a free expression of creativity. Cinema, as a collective,  nancially and ide- the tele lm Mirtis ir vyšnios medis (Death and the Cherry Tree, 1968) and somewhat di er- three decades. Its most important hero ologically dependant art, had to  ght against censoring, the ignorance of the o cials, ently — Gražuolė (The Beauty, 1969). The con ictual temperament of Vytautas Žalakevičius was a tenderly portrayed villager, while learn to bypass certain obstacles by creating new, sometimes very sophisticated authen- and cinematic playwright talent marked the publicist pathos and innovative form of Vienos the most important theme was the con- tication codes, although the audience could easily comprehend them. For them, this art dienos kronika (Chronicle of One Day, 1963). In his most famous  lm Niekas nenorėjo mirti nection with native land, inherited tra- form was emotionally close, citing a common identity. (Nobody Wanted to Die, 1965), V. Žalakevičius searched for an artistic generalisation of the dition and the cracking and systematic post-war period, utilising the structure of a metaphorical epic ballad. Understandably, this destruction of these bonds. If art in the The pioneering lm of Lithuanian cinema was Vytautas Žalakevičius’ Adomas nori was a glimpse not from the “forest perspective”. Therefore, once Lithuania regained its in- conditions of captivity is a hidden form būti žmogumi (Adomas Wants to Be a Human, 1959). However, the calling card for our dependence, the  lm was sharply, but straightforwardly criticised. However, for the viewers of resistance, than this feature was repre- cinema was the anthology “novella”  lm Gyvieji didvyriai (Living Heroes, dir. M. Giedrys, of the time, Niekas nenorėjo mirti imagined the recent history that people had previously sented particularly by documentary  lms, consistently capturing the death of the tradition- B. Bratkauskas, A. Žebriūnas, V. Žalakevičius), created a year later and awarded the main feared to even speak about. al village and conveying this social drama through a melancholic mood and visual sym- prize at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival. The novellas of Gyvieji didvyriai, bols, sometimes speaking openly, sometimes simply poeticising old rural values. Among uniting into a harmonious whole di erent creative styles and themes, predicted a genre In a historically and psychologically convincing manner, Raimondas Vabalas’ Laiptai į many  lms of these poetics are included such vivid works as R. Verba’s Čiūtyta Rūta (1968), and stylistic diversity in Lithuanian cinema. dangų (Stairway to Heaven, 1966), a  lm rich with stern realism and based on a novel by Šimtamečių godos (Centenarian Dreams, 1969), Paskutinė vienkiemio vasara (The Farmstead’s Mykolas Sluckis, revealed the post-war period. The  lm Jausmai (Feelings, 1968), by direc- Last Summer, 1971), Henrikas Šablevičius’ Kelionė ūkų lankomis (Journey Through the Fields tors Almantas Grikevičius and Algirdas Dausa, from the background of historical upheaval, of Nebulas, 1973), Žiniuonė (Wise Woman, 1975), Pabuvam savam lauki (We Were In Our Own raises to the foreground the inner feelings of the characters. The  lm’s rich atmosphere, Field, 1988). Already during the years of independence this tradition was continued in the expressive plasticity, was probably what drove its recognition as the best Lithuanian  lm in  lms of Diana and Kornelijus Matuzevičius, Už slenksčio (Beyond the Threshold, 1995), Lauki- a  lm critics questionnaire on the occasion of a century of cinema in 1995. Even today mas (Waiting, 1997); we can  nd echoes of it in feature  lms as well — Gytis Lukšas’ Vasara A. Grikevičius’ talent to express complicated re ections on history only through visual asso- baigiasi rudenį (Summer Ends in Autumn, 1981), the  lm Vakar ir visados (Yesterday and Al- ciations in the documentary  lm Laikas eina per miestą (Time Passes Through the City, 1966) ways, 1984), inspired by the poetry of Marcelijus Martinaitis and the 2009  lm adaptation of continues to fascinate. Romualdas Granauskas’ novel Duburys (Vortex).