Tomas Vengris
Five and a Half Love Stories in an Apartment in Vilnius
Penkios su puse meilės istorijos, nutikusios viename Vilniaus bute
LT, IE, LV
2023, 112', en, pl, he lt, hu
Age 12+ 

 

If an Airbnb apartment could talk, what stories would it tell? It would speak of heartache, betrayal, love études, and searching for one's self in the past. Five tenants from Ireland, Israel, Lithuania, Hungary, and Poland are destined never to meet, yet their fates and days unfold within the same walls and between the same sheets. A hen party with an unexpected twist, planning for a baby, a relative detective in Vilnius, nicknamed Little Jerusalem, a bachelor looking to rekindle a relationship with his love, and a stripper's double life, abruptly interrupted by unexpected guests. Amidst it all is the narrator – a Latvian cleaning lady Jolanta – whose love story is still in the making.

Shakespeare, often quoted in this dramedy, might be well content with the latest work of Vengris, a highly regarded Lithuanian director (Motherland (2019)), as this piece has achieved phenomenal success in Lithuania, including 11 nominations for Silver Crane, the Lithuanian national film award. Vengris opens the doors of his central Vilnius apartment, brings in the Latvian cinematographer Jurģis Kmins, and gathers a talented cast, including Géza Röhrig, who starred in Son of Saul (2015), and Lithuanian actress of Latvian descent Velta Žīgure-Anužiene. This co-production by the Latvian film studio Studija Lokomotīve not only highlights the emotional turmoil of the modern 21st-century individual, collective trauma and its bittersweetness, but also cleverly intertwines cultures and even finds a place for the quintessential Latvian romantic hit song Tu saviļņoji mani by Ainars Mielavs.