Baltic Event Works in Progress
Southern Chronicles
When your first love is your biggest lesson in life.
Amid the upheaval of a fast-changing country, a young man’s faith in love and the future is tested.
In a working-class neighbourhood of the Lithuanian city of Siauliai, a few years after the restoration of the country’s independence, lives brawny 17-year-old Rimants. More interested in playing rugby, listening to bands and dealing on the black market with his friend Minde than studying at school - much to the disapproval of his parents - Rimants is certain that physical strength and money are the essentials for success in a changing, competitive society. But when he meets and falls in love with the beautiful, middle class Monika, Rimants is introduced to a new world of literature, culture and alternative possibilities which he explores with guarded enthusiasm. However, frustrated by the difficult, fickle nature of young love and the ever-present obstacles of class, Rimants eventually casts aside the expectations of others and begins to contemplate a future on his own terms.
Director's note:
Lively, young, thick, intense, full of real or slightly fake documentary images. Filmed with a hand-held camera, looking at everything not from the side, but as Rimants (the hero) saw in 1993-94, living with him and other characters in the film - jumping on a rugby rake in a boar or diving into the first real kiss, pulling on a train sausage bags or discovering literature, getting new workouts or losing teeth in the Southern District, changing posters on a room wall, or listening to rewritten cassettes. The high pace, the abundance of events, the authenticity of the characters and the environment will allow you to believe in the main character and his story. We will be able to laugh at his “originals” and enjoy the disappearing fakes. We will be entertained by his life experiences, saddened by the losses and forced to think about the unfamiliar stage of life that the hero will face at the end of the film. When you just fake around, eventually you can start to see what’s real.
Egle Vertelyte graduated from European Film College in Denmark and has an MA in screenwriting from National Film and Television school. She directed her first middle length documentary "UB lama" in 2011 for which she received 6 international awards and was screened in more than 20 international film festivals as well as being sold to TV and cable worldwide. In 2017, she wrote and directed her first feature film "Miracle", which also became an international success. The film premiered at Toronto IFF, was screened at more than 50 festivals worldwide, sold to 24 territories, and won Lithuanian film awards for best film, best director, best writer, and best actress. Currently, Egle lives in Vilnius and works together with Lukas Trimonis in the production company they founded together - INSCRIPT.
Lukas Trimonis is a graduate from BFM in Estonia and NFTS in the UK. He is an award-winning producer and managing director of film and TV production company INSCRIPT in Lithuania. His debut as a lead producer on the feature film “MIRACLE” (dir. Egle Vertelyte), a co-production with Bulgaria and Poland, premiered during TIFF in 2017 and screened in over 55 IFF and sold to over 22 territories including China, France and USA. His most recent work as a minority co-producer on feature film “OLEG” (dir. Juris Kursietis), a co-production with Latvia, Belgium and France premiered during 51st “Directors’ Fortnight” in Cannes 2019. In 2018, he was selected by European film promotion as one of the producers on the move and in 2019 he was accepted to ACE producers.
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Esko Rips is the founder of Nafta Films, Estonia’s biggest younger generation production company. His latest work is a spy-thriller O2 alongside Taska Film.