The Sun Sets in the East
The Suns Sets in the East is an avant-garde documentary film contrasting present-day Lithuania with extracts from a peasant’s diary from 1984/85.
September 7, 2017 -
Agnieszka Pikulicka-Wilczewska
- 
Articles and Commentary
A few years ago, the film’s producer, Agne Dovydaityte, discovered a diary her grandfather left after his death. She read it over and over, and it helped her to find peace while living, working and studying in London. When she met Alexander Belinski, the film’s director and cinematographer, they realised that the diary is a touching account of the simple life of a peasant in Soviet Lithuania: the idea for the film was born.
The best thing about it might seem rather odd. Nothing dramatic happens in the diary, nothing major happens in a whole year of the peasant’s life. He lives within nature’s pace, goes to church, works in allotments, visits other villages… It presents the beauty of a lifestyle that is almost forgotten today. And the film aims to capture it.
The voiceover of selected days from the diary in the film contrasts shots of present day Lithuania – abandoned allotments, heavy industry, and the disturbing feeling one gets when looking at the forgotten landscapes of the country, which is now known as one of the leading countries by suicide rate.
The young filmmakers need your support to complete the project. Visit https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/212438122/the-sun-sets-in-the-east to find out more.
