Directed by Giedrė Beinoriūtė, drama, 97 min, eng subtitles, 16+
Written by Giedrė Beinoriūtė
With Airida Gintautaitė, Sigitas Šidlauskas, Guna Zariņa, Kristupas Cicėnas, Joris Baltrūnas, Vilnius Minčinauskas
Based on the eponymous novel by Lithuanian author Laura Sintija Černiauskaitė (winner of the 2009 EU Prize for Literature), this psychological drama invites us into the world of a three-member middle class family. Izabele and Liudas are intellectuals living with their son, Gailius (7), who epilepsy and is smarter than most children his age. One day Izabelle persuades her husband to adopt a quiet and reserved Ilja (6), disregarding the warnings of specialists and deciding to give him a new home and a new life as part of her family.
Structured as a diptych, Beinoriūtė’s debut feature focuses on the invisible threads connecting our lives, the responsibility we hold for each other, solitude and guilt, the fear of being rejected or abandoned,and the attempt to forgive each other when nothing else is left to be done. It is a film, just as one literature critic said on Černiauskaitė’s novel, in which “you can almost feel the characters breathing down your neck” and about which Beinoriūtė (admiring the work of Lars von Trier, Michael Haneke and Mike Leigh) will go on saying: “Breathing into Marble is about an attempt to warm up stone. It may be impossible, but it’s worth trying”.
Awards:
Karlovy Vary IFF 2018 (East of the West - Competition)
Lithuanian Film Awards 2018 (Silver Crane for Best Supporting Actor - Joris Baltrūnas)