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Vilnius Film Festival · 2022

Vilnius Film Festival 2022

To Exist You Coexist

Programme

23 films · 11 reviews

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Alcarràs

Review preview for Alcarràs

Simón takes a loose approach to the narrative, letting the small dramas of family play out alongside larger ones, giving as much value to the transient pleasures of fresh peach juice and cooked snails as the tensions between siblings.

Amber Wilkinson · 4 out of 5
The Solé family spends the summer picking peaches - but this year’s crop may well be their last as new owners plan to replace the peach trees with solar panels and the family’s livelihood is threatened.

(Country: Spain, Italy; Year: 2022; Director: Carla Simón; Writer: Carla Simón; Stars: Jordi Pujol Dolcet, Anna Otin, Xènia Roset, Albert Bosch, Ainet Jounou, Josep Abad, Montse Oró, Carles Cabós, Berta Pipó, Isaac Rovira, Joel Rovira)

Full review

American Movie

A man strives to finish a short horror film with the help of friends and family.

(Country: US; Year: 1999; Director: Chris Smith; Stars: Mark Borchardt, Tom Schimmels, Monica Borchardt, Alex Borchardt, Chris Borchardt, Ken Keen, Mike Schank, Matt Weisman, Bill Borchardt, Cliff Borchardt, Tom Beach, Joan Petrie, Robert Richard Jorge, Dean Allen, Tommy Dallace)

Arthur Rambo

Who is this Karim D? The new young writer whom the media can't get enough of? Or his alias, Arthur Rambo, the author of old hate-fuelled messages which are dredged up, one day, from social media websites?

(Country: France; Year: 2021; Director: Laurent Cantet; Writer: Fanny Burdino, Laurent Cantet, Samuel Doux; Stars: Sofian Khammes, Rabah Nait Oufella, Antoine Reinartz, Anaël Snoek, Aleksandra Yermak, Sofian Khammes, Rabah Nait Oufella, Antoine Reinartz, Anaël Snoek, Aleksandra Yermak)

Calendar

A couple take photos of an Armenian churches for a calendar but the husband becomes increasingly jealous of her bond with the driver who is helping them.

(Country: Armenia, Canada, Germany; Year: 1993; Director: Atom Egoyan; Writer: Atom Egoyan; Stars: Arsinée Khanjian, Ashot Adamyan, Atom Egoyan, Michelle Bellerose, Natalia Jasen, Susan Hamann, Sveta Kohli, Viva Tsvetnova, Roula Said, Annie Szamosi, Anna Pappas, Amanda Martínez, Diane Kofri)

Do The Right Thing

Review preview for Do The Right Thing

The madness and the badness is everywhere - the dangerous and the foolish

Angus Wolfe Murray · 4.5 out of 5
Racial tensions come to the boil on the hottest day of summer in Brooklyn.

(Country: US; Year: 1989; Director: Spike Lee; Writer: Spike Lee; Stars: Danny Aiello, Ossie Davis. Ruby Dee, Richard Edson, Giancarlo Esposito, Spike Lee, Bill Nunn, John Turturro, Rosie Perez, Samuel L Jackson, John Savage, Robin Harris, Steve Park)

Full review

First Cow

Review preview for First Cow

The simplest of pleasures bring the greatest moments of joy in Reichardt’s latest film.

Matthew Anderson · 4.5 out of 5
A cook with a group of fur trappers strikes up a connection with a Chinese emigre in the Old West.

(Country: US; Year: 2019; Director: Kelly Reichardt; Writer: Jonathan Raymond, Kelly Reichardt, based on the book by Jonathan Raymond; Stars: John Magaro, Orion Lee, Toby Jones, Alia Shawkat)

Full review

Flee

Review preview for Flee

By animating the whole movie, Rasmussen makes the story feel more immersive and of a whole piece.

Jeremy Mathews · 3.5 out of 5
Amin arrived as an unaccompanied minor in Denmark from Afghanistan. Today, he is a successful academic and is getting married to his long-time boyfriend. A secret he has been hiding for 20 years threatens to ruin the life he has built.

(Country: Denmark, France, Sweden, Norway; Year: 2021; Director: Jonas Poher Rasmussen; Writer: Jonas Poher Rasmussen)

Full review

The Fire Within (Le Feu Follet)

Review preview for The Fire Within

Maurice Ronet gives a towering performance.

Chris · 4.5 out of 5
A suicidal man struggling to avoid sliding back into alcoholism visits former friends and lovers to say goodbye.

(Country: France; Year: 1963; Director: Louis Malle; Writer: Louis Malle, based on the book by Pierre Drieu La Rochelle; Stars: Maurice Ronet, Léna Skerla, Yvonne Clech, Hubert Deschamps, Jean-Paul Moulinot, Mona Dol, Pierre Moncorbier, René Dupuy, Bernard Tiphaine, Bernard Noël, Ursula Kubler, Jeanne Moreau, Alain Mottet, François Gragnon, Romain Bouteille, Jacques Sereys, Alexandra Stewart)

Full review

Geographies Of Solitude

An immersion into the rich ecosystem of Sable Island and the life of Zoe Lucas, a naturalist and environmentalist who has lived over 40 years on this remote strip of land.

(Country: Canada; Year: 2022; Director: Jacquelyn Mills)

Histoires d'Amérique: Food, Family And Philosophy

Somewhere between documentary and fiction, Chantal Akerman tells the informal history of Jewish immigrants in New York.

(Country: Belgium, France; Year: 1989; Director: Chantal Akerman; Writer: Chantal Akerman; Stars: Mark Amitin, Eszter Balint, Kirk Baltz, George Bartenieff, Billy Bastiani, Isha Manna Beck, Jacob Becker, Max Brandt, Maurice Brenner, David Buntzman, István Bálint, Marilyn Chris, Sharon Diskin, Carl Don, Dean Zeth Jackson)

Hit The Road

Review preview for Hit The Road

Panahi and his actors shift through emotions so smoothly, you barely notice them until they have immersed you.

Amber Wilkinson · 5 out of 5
Drama based around a road trip in a borrowed car.

(Country: Iran; Year: 2021; Director: Panah Panahi; Writer: Panah Panahi; Stars: Hassan Madjooni, Pantea Panahiha, Rayan Sarlak, Amin Simiar)

Full review

Il Posto

Drama about two Italian youths seeking a job for life.

(Country: Italy; Year: 1961; Director: Ermanno Olmi; Writer: Ettore Lombardo, Ermanno Olmi; Stars: Loredana Detto, Sandro Panseri, Corrado Aprile, Guido Chiti, Tullio Kezich, Bice Melegari, Mara Revel, Guido Spadea, Loredana Detto, Sandro Panseri, Corrado Aprile, Guido Chiti, Tullio Kezich, Bice Melegari, Mara Revel)

Letter from My Village (Kaddu Beykat)

Ngor and Columba live in a Senegalese village. They wish to marry, but due to the droughts and reduction in crops, Ngor does not have enough to pay the dowry. He travels to the city to find work, but there he faces exploitation and returns to the village to tell of his experiences.

(Country: Senegal; Year: 1976; Director: Safi Faye; Stars: Assane Faye, Maguette Gueye, Safi Faye)

A Man And A Camera

Review preview for A Man And A Camera

As ingeniously simple as it is unnerving

Matthew Anderson · 3.5 out of 5
Filmmaker Guido Hendrikx doorsteps the unsuspecting residents of Dutch suburbia.

(Country: Netherlands; Director: Guido Hendrikx)

Full review

Mr Bachmann and His Class (Herr Bachmann und seine Klasse)

Documentary about a teacher and his pupils.

(Country: Germany; Year: 2021; Director: Maria Speth)

The Mushroom Speaks

This exploration of the fungi world taking a walk alongside parasites, symbionts and decomposers offers ideas of interconnectedness and collaboration.

(Country: Switzerland; Year: 2021; Director: Marion Neumann; Writer: Marion Neumann, Marion Neumann)

Întregalde

Review preview for Întregalde

This pleasant, thrilling watch shows Muntean is capable of making great cinema in some of the starkest places.

Georgiana Musat · 4 out of 5
A group of people on a humanitarian mission arrive in a remote area of Transylvania to offer the inhabitants various goods, but when they try to help a disorientated local, things take a turn for the worse.

(Country: Romania; Year: 2021; Director: Radu Muntean; Writer: Alexandru Baciu, Radu Muntean, Razvan Radulescu; Stars: Maria Popistasu, Ilona Brezoianu, Alex Bogdan)

Full review

Possession (The Night The Screaming Stops)

Review preview for Possession

What sustains Possession is the excess with which the actors throw themselves into the parts.

Chris · 3 out of 5
After his wife walks out on the family with no explanation, a distressed man hires a detective to help him find out why.

(Country: France, West Germany; Year: 1981; Director: Andrzej Zulawski; Writer: Andrzej Zulawski; Stars: Isabelle Adjani, Sam Neill, Margit Carstensen, Heinz Bennent, Johanna Hofer, Carl Duering, Shaun Lawton, Michael Hogben, Maximilian Rüthlein) , Trailer

Full review

Returning To Reims (Fragments) (Retour A Reims (Fragments))

Review preview for Returning To Reims (Fragments)

Never directly asking the question, but leaving liberté, égalité and fraternité to hang in the air between scenes and lines, Périot’s latest gives a voice to the voiceless, the disenfranchised, the forgotten.

Matthew Anderson · 3 out of 5
An intimate and political story of the French working class from the beginning of the 1950s to today.

(Country: France; Year: 2021; Director: Jean-Gabriel Périot; Stars: Narrated by Adèle Haenel)

Full review

Twilight

A policeman becomes obsessed with solving the mystery of a serial killer.

(Country: Hungary; Year: 1990; Director: György Fehér; Writer: Friedrich Dürrenmatt, György Fehér; Stars: Péter Haumann, János Derzsi, Judit Pogány, Kati Lázár, István Lénárt, Gyula Pauer, Miklós Székely B., László Németh, István Fogarasi, Pál Hetényi, Zsuzsa Erdõsi, József Pethõ, Erzsébet Nagy, Mónika Varga)

The Watermelon Woman

Review preview for The Watermelon Woman

This film is well aware of its own limitations: knows it can only pose the questions here, while answers will take time and belong, perhaps, to later generations.

Jane Fae · 4 out of 5
A young black lesbian in Philadelphia tries to track down a once legendary actress.

(Country: US; Year: 1996; Director: Cheryl Dunye; Writer: Cheryl Dunye; Stars: Cheryl Dunye, Guinevere Turner, Valarie Walker, Lisa Marie Bronson, Cheryl Clarke)

Full review

Where Is Anne Frank?

Kitty, Anne Frank’s imaginary friend and who her diary was dedicated, wakes up in the near future and embarks on a journey to find Anne, who she believes is still alive.

(Country: Belgium, France, Netherlands, Luxembourg, Israel; Year: 2021; Director: Ari Folman; Writer: Anne Frank; Stars: Emily Carey, Ruby Stokes, Nell Barlow, Skye Bennett, Sebastian Croft, Stewart Scudamore, Emily Carey, Ruby Stokes, Nell Barlow, Skye Bennett, Sebastian Croft, Stewart Scudamore)

Who We Were

A cinematic essay - inspired by the book "who we were" by Roger Willemsen.

(Country: Germany; Year: 2021; Director: Marc Bauder; Writer: Marc Bauder; Stars: Manfred Zapatka, Sylvia Earle, Alexander Gerst, Janina Loh, Dennis J. Snower, Felwine Sarr, Matthieu Ricard)