How exciting! Several Lithuanian titles are now accessible to international audiences on major streaming platforms.
Pilgrims, a 2021 drama directed by Laurynas Bareiša, premiered at the Venice Film Festival, where it won the Orizzonti Award. It tells the story of Paulius and Indrė who come to the Lithuanian town of Karmėlava to investigate the circumstances surrounding the death of Matas, Paulius’ brother and Indrė’s boyfriend. Now, the film is available to stream on HBO Max. Producers say it is a result of their collaboration with sales agents from New Zealand. “We are working with Resonate Films, whom we met unexpectedly at the Kino Pavasaris Festival [in Vilnius]. Since then, we have started the sales process for this film. They were very interested and had a lot of experience with HBO. Getting the film on this streaming platform is a really big achievement of theirs,” Klementina Remeikaitė, one of the film’s producers. “This is the first such success for a Lithuanian film, and it can lay the foundations for other Lithuanian films to be promoted on such platforms.”
Meanwhile, Vesper, portraying a post-apocalyptic dystopia, is now available to stream on Netflix (though not in Lithuania itself). Daiva Varnaitė-Jovaišienė, producer of the film, is happy that the Lithuanian film, which was launched on Netflix in late January, “jumped to the top of the charts and now we are delighted to be in second place”. Directed by Kristina Buožytė and Bruno Samper, Vesper is set after the collapse of the Earth’s ecosystem and follows the title character, a 13-year-old girl, as she uses her survival skills to support herself and her ailing father in a strange and dangerous new world. “When Vesper finds a mysterious woman, Camellia, alone and disoriented after an aerial crash, she agrees to help find her missing companion in exchange for safe passage to the Citadel – the dark central hub where oligarchs live in comfort thanks to state-of-the-art biotechnology,” the plot synopsis reads.
“It’s a really popular film right now in England and Scotland. It’s also on the ACM+ platform in America, where it is in the sixth place. This is a huge home streaming platform. This is a truly fantastic achievement and performance for the film,” says Varnaitė-Jovaišienė.
For more information on Lithuanian films, visit the Lithuanian Film Centre website at https://www.lkc.lt/en/ to find news and various listings and descriptions in Lithuanian and English.
