Wheelchair accessible, English subtitling
Samizdat Eastern European Film Festival presents the Scotland premiere of Feature Film About Life (Ilgo metro filmas apie gyvenimą). Lithuanian writer/director Dovilė Šarutytė's debut feature film, it was featured in the programme of Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival 2021 and received a Special Jury Award at Transilvania IFF 2021.
Dovilė's life is shaken by her father’s death. But there is no time to mourn, as she must urgently organise the funeral. Trying to make it perfect, Dovilė takes care of every detail and finds herself in increasingly curious situations. Meanwhile, her childhood memories, stored away in home videos and photographs, are coming back to the surface, accompanying her through the process of dealing with grief as she takes care of routine tasks and makes funerary arrangements.
This film can also be watched online (Sep 27 - Oct 13) thanks to our partner Klassiki.
Content notes: Depictions of grief, discussions of death.
Curated by Natalia Guzevataya
director’s statement
Both writing the script and searching for directorial choices, I deliberately chose not to have one indisputable moral attitude. There are no obvious winners or losers of the film’s dramatic conflicts. With this story, I wanted to revive my own subjective emotional experiences as authentically as possible. And I believe my own insights could affect others as well. I have no intention of moralizing or telling a “moral tale” – but rather to evoke internal discussions that could lead to personal reflections and conclusions on the subject of the film.
idea for the film
How do we react if someone close to us dies? That's unpredictable. The most unexpectable combinations of emotions are to be expected. Dealing with her father's funeral problems works as a kind of therapy for Dovile, the main character of the film, and helps to leave her gloomy thoughts behind. And the joy of "successful" event overshadows her mourning, if only temporarily. This paradox is the dramatic axis of the story. Although the starting point of the movie is death, it's a story about those who continue to live.
Director’s biography
Dovilė Šarutytė (born 1986) graduated with a degree in film directing from the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre in 2009. Her student work Nasty Dream (2008) captured the attention of critics at home and abroad. I Know You, one of her first works as a director, was voted the Best Lithuanian Short Film at the Lithuanian Film Academy Awards Silver Crane 2010. The film won the Main Prize at the Young Cinema Art 2010 World Student Film Festival in Poland. In 2011, she won a second Silver Crane award for Not Lucky Today. Her 2016 glimpse into a woman’s life – 8 minutes – was recognized as the Best Lithuanian Short Film at the Scanorama Film Forum.