Nova Lituania
Lithuania 2019

It’s the late 1930s and the young, independent Republic of Lithuania that emerged just after World War I is entangled in a dance of death with its ever-belligerent neighbours. In his first feature film, loosely based on real events and set mainly in Lithuania’s interwar capital Kaunas, the talented director Karolis Kaupinis presents, with subtle irony, an authentic reconstruction of the last moments of pre-WWII Lithuania. Gruodis, a geography professor whose marriage is in tatters, vehemently tries to convince others of his utopian project to save the country: he wants to create an alternative Lithuania in a remote African territory. His hopes start to take shape when he encounters a former Prime Minister who is also aware that the prospects of retaining Lithuania’s statehood appear bleak.

Awards:

Karlovy Vary IFF 2019 (East of the West competition)