Juozas Miltinis

When I Was a Child

This “naive” film, as the author himself calls it, is a kind of confession of a young man.

Madness

Before the end of the Second World War, a special commando marches into a mental hospital located in a beautiful manor house to eliminate the patients. But the Gestapo has received an anonymous letter saying that an enemy agent is hiding among the madmen. Officer Windisch is tasked with finding a simulant among several hundred mental patients in a matter of days.

Steps in the Night

Vabalas’s thesis film “Footsteps in the Night” (1962) portrays Kaunas in 1943, occupied by the German army. Alex, who recently returned to the city, tries to join the anti-Nazi resistance, but is captured and imprisoned. He soon starts planning his escape. Even though the screenplay was forced on him by his superiors, Vabalas managed to avoid creating an overly-heroic film. Instead, his work is filled with tension and complex characters. The film involved one of the most memorable scenes in Lithuanian cinema, portraying prisoners dancing by the fire. (Kino Pavasaris)

Adam Wants to Be a Man

In a pre-WWII Lithuanian town, occupied with unemployed workers and crooks of various kinds, lives Adam, a naive young man with no job and a lot of dreams. His closest friend is the Captain, an old sea wolf with many tales to tell about Singapore, Hawaii and other equally exotic and sunny places. Inspired by his stories, Adam manages to get a job in an emigration bureau and starts saving for his ticket to leave abroad.

Sunrise Over the Neman

The rise of a Lithuanian collective farm in the post-war years and the struggle against the remnants of the past in people's minds.

Hélène

Helene is based on Helene Wilfur, a novel by Vicki (Grand Hotel) Baum. Madeleine Renaud essays the title role, a young medical student in love with aspiring musician Pierre Regnier (Jean-Lous Barrault). Pierre's father, a noted surgeon, puts pressure on his son to give up music in favor of medicine. Unable to withstand his father's remonstrations, Pierre kills himself, prompting the grieving Madeleine to forget all about romance and dedicate her life to the cause of healing others. Wilfur avoids the usual soap-opera goo by offering realistic performances and credible dialogue (the English-language subtitles were composed by erudite film critic Herman G. Weinberg).