Miracle

Irena (Egle Mikulionyte) owns a pig farm. In the past, under Communism, it was famous. We learn something of its history from the old film reels she still treasures. Its pigs had a fecundity unknown elsewhere in Lithuania, making her family into celebrities. But capitalism has been bad for small farms, with the industry now dominated by big corporations. Things are not going well for Irena. That’s why she’s willing to listen to the stranger.

The stranger is Bernardas (Vyto Ruginis), an American of Lithuanian ancestry who turns up at the village store one day. He’s loud, brash, and wears a red baseball cap. He wants to buy Irena’s farm. He’ll invest in it, he says, and she can still run it – he just wants to own it, mostly for sentimental reasons. Somehow Irena, who gives the impression of having lost interest in her husband years ago, is charmed by him. But when things sound too good to be true, that’s often because they are.

Miracle is the Donald Trump joke that arrived at the party too late. It only really has one observation to make (beyond the fact that any sudden, enthusiastically imposed new ideology tends to screw things up) and all it can do is repeat it in slightly different forms. Naturally, the American doesn’t stick to his word. Naturally, he’s incompetent. Again and again, Irena feels betrayed by him, only to fall for his promises again. In one particularly absurd episode, they dig up a quarter of a field in search of supposed buried treasure. This repetition becomes a tool to highlight how absurd the whole situation is, but we don’t really learn anything in the process.

Egle Vertelyte’s direction is sharp and crisp. The timing in each scene is beautifully judged, even the extras perfectly coordinated for comic effect. The seriousness with which Mikulionyte imbues her role is a vital counterpart to the humour. Yet unless one is still able to invest in the central joke, it all falls a bit flat. Only the pigs are really sympathetic, as if looking on with an Orwellian eye for the main chance. They lost their illusions about humanity long ago.