| Screening time | |
|---|---|
| 28.02. / Tuesday, 14:00 - 16:00 Theatre 5 |
A gracefully expressive documentary following the lives of children living with leukemia at a pediatric hospital in Vilnius, Lithuania.
Arunas Matelis' film is a gracefully expressive documentary following the lives of children living with leukemia at a pediatric hospital in Vilnius, Lithuania. The children enter into an alien world, bereft of color and warmth, but populated with kind strangers. Inured to the routine of daily medication and meals that alternate between porridge and cabbage soup, the children dream of life beyond the clinic's thick cement walls while their parents bear the burden of uncertainty about their children's fate. The filmmaker spent eight months at this very hospital after his own daughter's successful fight against leukemia.
Arunas Matelis
Arūnas Matelis was born in Kaunas, Lithuania, in 1961. He studied mathematics and he obtained a degree in theatre and television at the Lithuanian Musical Academy. In 1991, he founded Nominum, one of the first independent production houses in Lithuania, producing ‘creative’ documentaries awarded by festival juries in Cannes, Rotterdam, Amsterdam and Oberhausen. Among them are: Before Flying Back to the Earth (2005, Big Stamp Award at 2006 ZagrebDox), Flight over Lithuania or 510 Seconds of Silence (2004), Sunday: The Gospel According Lift-Man Albertas (2003).
General sponsor
Pries parskrendant i zeme
Lithuania
2005, 52', color, video
Directed by:
Arunas Matelis
Cinematography:
Audrius Kemezys, Algimante Matelis
Edited by:
Katharina Schmidt
Music:
Kipras Masanauskas
Producer:
Gerd Haag
Produced by:
Nominum
Festivals & Awards:
Best Lithuanian Film 2005 by Lithuanian Filmmakers Union; IDFA 2005 – Silver Wolf; International Leipzig Festival for Documentary and Animated Film 2005 - Golden Dove; Documenta Madrid 2005 – Main Prize; Brooklyn International Film Festival 2006 - Spirit Award for Documentary; Pärnu International Film Festival 2006 - Grand prix; Silverdocs 2006 – Special Jury Mention; ZagrebDox 2006 – Big Stamp (Best Film, International Competition)
