Kai apkabinsiu tave

I recently saw this at the 2012 Palm Springs International Film Festival where it's writer/director Kristijonas Vilziunas and lead actress Elzbieta Latenaite were on hand at my screening for a Q&A following the film. Latenaite plays Ruta, a Lithuanian-born young woman living in the United States who has traveled to Germany with her friend Aukse (Jurga Jutaite) to meet her father Vladas (Andrius Bialobzeskis) who has moved from Soviet Lithuania to East Berlin. The story is set in 1961 just prior to the Berlin Wall going up and Vladas is under the supervision of KGB agents who want Ruta to come to the east part of the city for her reunion with her father so they can force her to stay in the east and use her as a propaganda tool. These are dangerous times in this Cold War story of families separated by post WWII politics of Europe. Good story and direction from Vilziunas in his third feature film with lot's of use of archival footage of the era. Nice cinematography from Vladas Nudzius who is principally known as a documentary cinematographer. Costumer Agne Rimkute has come up with some great designs faithful to the era and production designer Galius Klicus skillfully recreates 1961 Berlin for the film that was shot on location in Lithuania. Saulius Urbanavicius gives the film excellent sound and composer Antoni Lazarkiewicz provides an excellent score. good acting from the cast but the film moves along a little too slowly and subplots aren't explored enough. This co-production of Lithuania, Germany and Poland was Lithuania's official submission to the 84th Academy Awards. I would give this a 7.0 out of 10.

I saw this at the Cleveland International Film Festival with a Lithuanian in a theater full of Lithuanians. Ruta is a young girl who fled to America with her mother right after WWII and the Communist occupation of Lithuania. She returned to Germany hoping to reunite with her beloved father, who is was unable to escape Communism and is under control of the KGB.

The story isn't bad, and could have made a good movie. But the direction is slow, distracting, and there are long pauses and focus on irrelevant people and objects that just detract from the story. The overwhelming theme is people smoking. There are actually scenes that focus solely on an ashtray and cigarettes flicking ash. These fill the screen for significant time, and it's as though the director needed to fill time.

When the lights came up there were people asleep or close to it. It was beyond the stamina of most everyone to endure the long, lingering scenes where nothing happened.

Stay away.