Nova Lituania

Genre-transcending debut drama about plans to move the whole of Lithuania to avoid the cruelties of the Second World War.

At the end of the thirties, the Lithuanian geographer Kazys Pakstas presented a radical proposal to avoid that the entire country would be consumed by the imminent expansion of Germany or Russia: The nation should buy a parcel of land in Africa or America to move all of Lithuania there. 80 years later the debuting director Karolis Kaupinis turns the plans into fiction. The portrayal and the beautiful black-and-white cinematography are so convincing that you can almost mistake it for a documentary portrayal of a true course of events. As part of the audience you experience the story with a lump in your throat – we know this story. A film that stays with you for a long time.

• Freddy Olsson