Pilis (film)
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | Pilis |
| Country of production | Ireland , Lithuania |
| original language | Lithuanian , English |
| Publishing year | 2020 |
| length | 115 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | Lina Lužytė |
| script | Lina Lužytė |
| production |
David Collins , Kestutis Drazdauskas |
| music | Jonas Jurkūnas |
| camera | Michael Lavelle |
| cut | Benjamin Mirguet |
| occupation | |
| |
Pilis ( Lithuanian "(the) castle", international English-language title The Castle ) is a coming-of-age film by Lina Lužytė . It is an Irish- Lithuanian co-production.
action
13-year-old Monika is a passionate singer and comes from Lithuania. She lives in the suburbs of Dublin with her mother Jolanta, a professional pianist. Like the others in the neighborhood, Jolanta had to take a job in a local fish factory because her mother, who suffers from dementia and whose behavior has become completely uncontrollable, needs care around the clock.
Monika wants to continue making music with her mother because she is convinced that one day they will make it big. After performing at a funeral, music impresario Liam Maguire invited them to give an hour-long concert at "The Castle", a prestigious venue not far from the Irish capital. The pragmatic Jolanta, however, sells her piano and explains to her daughter that she will decline the offer. Monika, on the other hand, believes that this could be the great opportunity she has been waiting for a long time. So she comes up with a crazy plan: In order to get the 100 euros it costs to borrow a piano, she kidnaps her own grandmother, hides her in a nearby apartment and demands a ransom from Jolanta.
production
The director was Lina Lužytė , who also wrote the script. It is the Lithuanian director's third film after her 2012 documentary Igrushki and her first feature film, a 2015 thriller called Together for Ever .
The main role of Monika was cast with the young actress Barbora Bareikytė . Gabija Jaraminaitė-Ryškuvienė plays her mother Jolanta, Jūratė Onaitytė Monika's grandmother and Frank Melia plays the music impresario Liam Maguire.
Michael Lavelle acted as cameraman .
From July 10, 2020, Pilis was featured at the Galway Film Fleadh.
reception
Davide Abbatescianni of the online film magazine Cineuropa writes in his review that even if the premise sounds like it has great potential for a comedy, the entire film vacillates between a coming-of-age story and a psychodrama. The solid character development and the organic development of the plot gave the viewer a deep sense of misery and melancholy. The acting performances of the three main actors help to give the narrative great depth. Jūratė Onaitytė , Gabija Jaraminaitė-Ryškuvienė, and Barbora Bareikytė praised the unpredictable reactions of the grandmother, Jolanta's despair, and Monika's great determination . Overall, Lina Luzyte tries to explore the coming-of-age genre more mature with her film, there is little room for sweetness or tenderness, and to grow up here simply means facing the brutality of reality, according to Abbatescianni. Monika is aware that no one will come to save her, that she cannot expect miracles and that there are things that are beyond her control. These hard lessons could sum up the entire moral of the film, and Monika must internalize them as soon as possible.
Web links
- Pilis in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- The Castle in the Galway Film Fleadh program
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d Davide Abbatescianni: The Castle. In: cineuropa.org, July 14, 2020.
- ↑ Galway Film Fleadh 2020 - Schedule In: galwayfilmfleadh.com. Accessed on July 14, 2020 (PDF; 405 KB)