YOU CAN’T ESCAPE LITHUANIA
(NUO LIETUVOS NEPABEGSI)
dir. Romas Zabarauskas, 2016
80 mins. Lithuania.
In Lithuanian with English subtitles.

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 2 – 7:30PM with filmmaker Q+A
ONE NIGHT ONLY!

Romas Zabarauskas’ YOU CAN’T ESCAPE LITHUANIA is a shapeshifting, whiplash-inducing road movie which may seem initially autobiographical (the main character is an enfant terrible LGBTQ filmmaker from Lithuania named Romas) but soon gives way to a metaphysical nesting doll of narratives and counternarratives. Critically feted but not yet a financial success, Romas (Denisas Kolomyckis) agrees to help his star actress Indre (Irina Lavrinovic) escape Lithuania after she kills her mother (in what appears to be self-defense) following an argument over her inheritance. Romas’ boyfriend Carlos (Adrian Escobar) is opposed to the plan, but doesn’t speak the language shared by Romas and Indre, and so tensions mount – worsened by the emergence of what appears to be a sexuality-crossing love triangle. Deadpan and hilarious, YOU CAN’T ESCAPE LITHUANIA evokes Godard’s anti-cinema of the late 1960s, Chuck Jones’ DUCK AMUCK or Wojciech Has’ classic THE SARAGOSSA MANUSCRIPT.

screens with

PORNO MELODRAMA
dir. Romas Zabarauskas, 2011
30 mins. Lithuania.
In Lithuania with English subtitles.

Akvilė and Jonas were a couple until Jonas fell in love with a man. But Akvilė cannot forget her lover and continues to appear in porn films, even without him. She begs her childhood sweetheart to make one more film with her. Jonas agrees – but only so that he can leave the country with his lover.