“It’s a taught and tension filled film but the ending left me a little exhausted“
Con Nats
3 /5 laps
There’s a great range of films on for the Europa Europa Film Festival and here is the third of three my picks from a fascinating programme.
A quadriplegic man is receiving a bed bath. A young lady, Marija (Žygimantė Elena Jakštait) awakes with a cut lip and starts to run. And run. She’s trying to track down her boyfriend, Vytas (Mariuss Repsys) a brilliant PhD student who is bi-polar and who has had an episode. She gives up her job and uses her friends to look for him, and he really doesn’t want to be caught.
Jakštait gives a strong performance but rarely flinches from gritty determination. There are lots of illusions to Lithuania and some heavy handed imagery. The barking rottweiller (the black dog) is an obvious one which suggests this is an illusion, but isn’t, and the ending is vague as to how worthwhile it has all been. It’s a taught and tension filled film but the ending left me a little exhausted.
Con Nats, On The Screen
