DICE-CHING-O-MAT

Solitary star seeking a constellation.

Vilis (55), a scholar of Asian Studies, finds himself trapped in the CUBE – a mysterious, elevator-like structure. When the CUBE flips, Vilis hits his head and realises he no longer knows who he is. An intercom instructs him to leave through the red doors and find the green doors outside.
The red doors lead Vilis to Vilnius, locked down by the 2020 pandemic. There, he encounters his wife and adult children – two daughters and a son – yet feels like a stranger in his own family. His children are unsurprised; after all, their father had long since vanished into his academic bubble.

Main country of production

Lithuania

Director's note

Vilis is a 55-year-old professor of Asian Studies – a man who believed life was something to understand, not to feel. One day, he finds himself inside a structure we call 'The Cube' – a physical manifestation of his mind.
We built it to resemble a worn-out Soviet elevator. It was rigged in multiple ways – hung from a crane, mounted on vibrating platforms, fixed in a centrifuge – like in Kubrick's '2001: A Space Odyssey,' turning and tumbling our protagonist inside.
Through the intercom, Vilis's grandmother tells him: 'Exit through the red doors, find the green ones outside.' That's how the story begins – a man's odyssey back to the family he left behind emotionally.
'Dice-Ching-o-Mat' began with something I experienced during the pandemic, when my own world stopped – and I turned back to my family. Thematically, it nods to Ozu's 'Tokyo Story' – only here, the estranged one is the father. The film raises universal questions: How do we relate to the people closest to us? Could we do more? Could it be different?

Subjects:

familial relationships, COVID