Emilia (2017) Movie Script
1
Bravo!
Bravo!
Emilia, Emilia!
I'm sorry
I. I couldn't help it, I.
I love the theater too much
So you did it Thank you
Bravo!
You think it's brave to go out there and set
yourself on fire like that? A real feat, right?
So what do you suggest?
Selling out the way you did?
OK, fine
You don't care about the theater,
about us-you don't give a damn
But you.. Think about yourself!
They could lock you up in the nuthouse!
And they definitely won't let you stay in the
theater Do you at least understand that?
I'm not staying here.
So you're betraying us again
Let's go, let's go
Good, good Emilia, careful.
Emilia, do you remember
how we used to play theater?
So today we're going
to play again, OK?
Do you remember when
we were at the theater?
There were a lot of men there
And they all talked really loud, right?
Remember, it was
even a little scary
So now I really want to ask you to play
the part of the bravest girl in the world
who's not afraid of anything at all
You brave little girl
You little hero of mine
Now I'm going to hide you
Don't be afraid of anything.
May 1972 Kaunas, Lithuania
Blame only the regime for my death.
Romas Kalanta
Mom! Look!
You'll get your bath,
and coffee, and cocoa
- You know, maybe a little bit - A little bit? The
guys say I'm the spitting image! I could act!
- Would you like to?
- No way, what kind of job is that?
Raise your arm, lower your ass,
raise your leg
But this-the collective farm.
now that's a job!
- Well I'm going to act in the theater
- Get out, seriously?
- Seriously
- I've never been to the theater
- Never?
- Uh-uh
Then I'll invite you, definitely
I think for the average
Soviet man, the theater
But everything there is
so exulting, so pure!
Yeah, pure- and there I am,
with these dirty boots of mine, right?
I'll suffocate, oh, I'll suffocate
Those black walls crushed me
- Oh no, stop, stop, please don't!
- Those black walls. The spirit of God does not exist in the world
- I can't hear you I can't hear you - I'll
suffocate, oh, I'll suffocate Those black..
Stop, stop, stop!
So you'll find that theater of yours?
Will you find your garage?
- Emilia.
- Yes?
- Will you invite me to a show?
- I'll think about it
Take care!
Freedom for Lithuania!
Freedom for Lithuania!
- Excuse me, let me through, let me through - Hey,
you're going in the wrong direction Come with us.
- What? Where?
- Come with us, it's more fun.
Just look around,
everyone wants freedom
- I have to go to the theater!
- Where?
- To the theater!
- What are you doing? Stop!
OK, let's go
To the farmstead, get moving.
Let's go!
- Hi Leon
- Hi.
Hold on.. I have one of
yesterday's for you
- How many did we get yesterday?
- Four hundred.
And where did they put them?
Eight are getting time, and they shaved
the other hippies bald and let them go
- Here They gave one over to us
- Why?
They said it's your field,
anti-Soviet literature
Here, read it
- What's his name?
- Her name. Some actress.
What are you standing there for?
Sit down
What's your name?
Emilia
So, an actress
I've been appointed.
To the theater
From the conservatory
So you'll have to invite me to a show
Sit down!
What is this, you've decided
to try and scare me?
And in general
young lady, maybe there's
something you want to tell me?
Let me go To the theater
Please
Of course, this is no dormitory,
but I understand
how hard it is these days
to find a place to stay. Wow
So.
No roaming around
the theater at night.
No monkey business,
no boys, no drinking.
What happened to your face?
- I fell.
- Hm.
This one's yours
This is for the stage door
Thank you
Rehearsal is at 10:00
Actors aren't late here
Welcome
Comrade Ceslovas, this isn't just a table
He's seating us here
like apostles at the last supper
and hoping that we won't understand anything.
Or that we'll pretend that we don't understand!
So maybe he'll make us sing
some religious hymn to finish it off?
This is an artistic solution
They're fanatics of their idea-apostles!
Right, apostles
I can smell that nationalistic
underground of yours a kilometer away.
Kil-AH-meter
A kil-AH-meter too!
Guys, come on
- Ceslovas, all this over some stupid table
- Yeah, really
This isn't about the table.
This is for Lithuania
Excuse me.
They already brought the bones.
Come on, they're here!
Let's go
What's this now?
Hi, it's good you're here
I need some with more meat, with meat.
Yeah, yeah, that one.
Give it to me, give it to me
This is mine, mine
I got here first
- How many did you take?
- I was first and I need it
Bones?
The Meat Combine takes care of us.
We give them a better play,
and they give us better bones
Have you settled in?
How is it?
- I just expected it to be totally different.
- The theater?
- It always seemed so.. You know, so..
- Magical.
There's nothing magic here
- It's a quagmire
- The theater?
This whole damn
system is a theater..
You're neither sobbing
nor quarreling
We're neither returning
nor coming back
As long as we have the road,
we're moving forward
As long as we have our hearing,
we're listening to the song
We all sang as well as we could
We all.
I want to welcome
the newest addition to our tight-knit
family here at the theater
- the young artist. Elena?
- Emilia.
Emilia!
Each person who has consecrated his
life to the theater is, in truth
renouncing himself completely
This is how he gives all of himself
to the playwrights, the directors,
his partners and the audience
And I have no doubt that our theater is
the perfect cherry orchard, where
- Orchard-more like a collective farm
- A garden
where the talent of a
young artist can blossom
So, my dear Emilia
I'm sure you will manage to feel at
home with this group and this stage
and that you will one day shine brighter
than some of our theater's veterans
- I welcome you
- Thank you.
And now a word from the
future living classic
future People's Artist of the USSR
and the Lithuanian SSR-Emilia!
- Poem
- Poem, poem.
Poetry
It is a hymn to the warriors
and the unknown soldiers
who come to rape
our mothers and sisters
To the temples of gods
whose altars have been exchanged
for a fat stomach hundreds of times
It is a hymn to papa Caesar, whose lucid
mind leads us into the bright distance
where we perch, free, behind bars
sucking the foul air into our chests
as if it were the spirit of freedom
and feeding each other lies, and singing
the hymn to the god of betrayal
who is soiled with the
blood of white lambs!
Not bad Just..
I didn't have time to do that then
Rehearsal tomorrow
- is at nine
- Eleven, director.
Nine.
Bravo, bravo, bravo.
You know
whatever kind of ideas
he's trying to carry out, he doesn't
have the right to break an actor's back.
An over-ambitious director, he
stifles both the playwright's idea
Director?
Yes, director
He stifles both the playwright's
idea and the actor's talent
Director
So we actors
we have to stick together and
resist this directorial despotism
And you were great.
Way to go.
You got up and, how did it go
we're feeding each other lies, and
singing the hymn to the god of betrayal
By the way, who's the author?
I'm telling you,
they can access your papers, but
they never go and look themselves
The authorities give the order..
And I bring it to them
And your file, believe me..
There's a layer of dust that thick
it's been lying there so long
Don't get me wrong,
but maybe you have paranoia or something?
You could take a vacation, relax
I'm serious
Wait, maybe it's not our guys
checking you out, huh?
Then I have no idea
You have a cornflower in your hand,
completely differently than after the war
Wonderful times have come
Pearls of dew are hanging in the forest
From happiness, not a hangover,
You would drop into a floweryley
And above the native forest border,
A small breeze drives a cloud away.
All together now
Join in.
- Not now
- Another verse
You listen to a song that
scares a hare at the far end of the field, and you write
perfect lines, that you can shove wherever you want
Comrade Ausra, excuse us please
So it turns out you really are an actress
So, what is it, what?
I cannot understand
So many horrors surround us
and so much senselessness
Who gave this to you?
WHO?
My dad.
My dad wrote it
And who might dad be?
An enemy of the people
This is the last time
I'm asking nicely
Who.sent.you?
No one sent.
There is one step between
a hero and a traitor.
- I'm not a traitor
- A simple question
A simple. Answer
- No one sent me I was sent here from the
conservatory - Don't you try my patience!
- I.
- Quiet!
- I don't.
- Answer me, now!
- I don't know anything.
- Simple and clear, or
- I don't know anything.
- One
- No one sent me I swear I
don't know anything - Two
I need the procedural room
Bring Kostas in
No one informed me
I'm informing you, now.
Leon, but after last time I.
- Shhh.
- Leon
A dark night in late autumn.
Bearers of freedom settled there
Bearers of freedom
He's a good poet WAS
The poems he wrote for children
Only no one knows that in '49 he wrote
songs for bandits in the forests
Leon!
Leon!
Leon!
They arrested Cornflower, Leon
They tortured her!
Just look what the fear of
death does to a person
You can't love the fatherland when
you're rotting somewhere in the swamp
- Please, don't
We promised him a comfy life that every fucking
Little Octobrist would recite his poems
But he betrayed everything
Every last person he knew.
He was a faithful dog
Just the alcohol.
His conscience woke up
Look how heroes of the people die Look!
Get out of here.
Go home, mother
No!
Come on, pick him up!
So, are you going to keep
playing the hero, or what?
You think I'll see this
and shit my pants?
You think you're going to scare me?
I'm the one who does the scaring here
Got it?
This is all I have left of my family.
I don't have anyone to betray
I never have
I. I don't have anything.
We all have someone to betray
Alright, I see it's not funny
Hi there
What's wrong?
Emil.
Right
Is there anything I can. Do?
I...
- You sit.
- I'll wash them.
Come on I.
- It's fine, I'll do it myself.
- I'm sorry It's my. I'll wash them then.
Oh, right OK.
- Could you not stare?
- Oh, yeah. I can
Wrath, vexation, you say
And love?
Love has come, perhaps for
the first time, to those
those old blackened halls, where only
spite and pain had built a nest before
Now love has come.
We cried, like children from joy that
first day when we were alone together
I was looking for you
and I found you
I have been looking for you
from the day I was born
I wanted to challenge death
But I summoned With all my heart,
I summoned life
I want to comprehend
my incomprehensible fate
Wait a minute You wrote this?
- My dad wrote it
- And dad is...?
An enemy of the people
Emilia.
Kristina!
Kristina!
Wait. Wait up
Kris Kristina
I just. Stopped by
Kristina.
Oh, Lithuania! Lithuania!
My love, punish me if there is even
a drop of blood among the diamonds
Save me if there is love shining
for you in the diamonds
Be free, oh Lithuania, for ever and ever
And be just and good to all!
So. What do you think?
While no one is talking, I'd like to
ask a question, if that's alright
Who stole the manure?
- What?
- The manure.
I called the collective
farm yesterday and
they said that they loaded
a truck of manure for us.
So where's the truck?
Listen, we're talking about
the play, about Lithuania
Well we're talking
about the manure
He's right, it's time to
fertilize the garden
Hey, hey, so when did you
sell your actor's soul?
And what did you get? That ration
coupon for a washing machine?
You try washing shit-filled diapers
every day with bloody knuckles,
I'd like to see that
Come on everyone,
just look what material we have
Hold on, hold on
What material?
This isn't material-this is.
the devil only knows what this is.
A woman leading a revolution
And against who-the Great Russian nation!
So what do you have against
women, huh, Julius?
Jonas, you're the director
Say something already!
What, Julius?
Against tsarist rule
Against class inequality
Emilia Plater
The first female revolutionary
But yeah
Obviously. The text is tricky
Exactly, exactly
That's what I'm talking about.
Women!
A female revolutionary!
Like Maryte Melnikaite.
And at the Ministry
it'll breeze right through.
Oh, I've got to go Watch it now.
Before you came,
we had everything
We went on tour, we
performed at the Kremlin
They were going to let us take
our plays abroad To Poland.
What, were the plays any worse?
By the way, they have
a good theater there.
- In Poland?
- At the Kremlin
You idiot
They have a snack bar there where you can
get bananas, and peas and mayonnaise.
I don't like mayonnaise
Learn to make compromises
So it works for them and us. Understand?
No, Julius, I don't understand
I am Severiute from Uzpaliai Village,
Where the railway turns to the south,
Where along the tracks I walked barefoot, Like
a pregnant laundress driven out of the house.
Like the last one, at the big table
set out There was no room for me
Behind my back, without me
hearing, you talked, you talked,
Behind my back, without me
hearing, you talked, you talked,
Behind my back, without me
hearing, you talked, you talked
I was not a sister to you,
I just wove the linens
I raised my third mute
brother by myself
I wept in the wooden
bed of my dead father
And did not blame you.
I walked through the frozen earth like through
knives, and plodded through the mud of the village
I lived far from you, from
Uzpaliai Village, miles away,
At night of a small white-headed
baby, white-headed baby
I would talk with the grass
The little hunchback who died the year
before last played the accordion for me
He said he would clothe me in
beer and shoe me with a scythe,
He said he would clothe me in
beer and shoe me with a scythe,
He said he would clothe me in
beer and shoe me with a scythe.
No! No!
- Just give it a try.
- I'm not wearing these rags
These aren't rags
These are costumes for the
play-get used to them
I said no.
Kristina, we already discussed
what this play is about
That this play is about us, about you,
about me, about freedom
About creative freedom that we don't have.
And the freedom to be a person
Yeah, well I also don't understand
what that madhouse has to do with it?
Listen, she's leaving everything
Her parents, her home, her privileges. You
She's rounding up the
men and going to war.
You see, she's sacrificing
herself for freedom
She's giving up her life
And you-you take the shirt,
well, like a dress.
A wedding dress-you see
where I'm going with this?
And it's as if.
It's like the death of freedom
Like this?
And you know,
I thought that maybe
maybe you can stick me in a box
and make me read my lines from there?
There, you got it
Do you understand that I am not a thing
that you can stick in some box!
To read my lines from there!
I'm an actress, understand?
You can't shove an actor
around like a pawn!
You're doing everything
you can to kill the actor
But I want to express my thoughts freely Without
all those bells and whistles And without a fuss
So if these rags cover up your talent, then
maybe there isn't any talent there at all?
Go to hell with that
talent of yours, got it?
I'm not playing this shit
So don't!
You don't have to
I don't think you even could!
What are you looking at?
Rehearsal is over
You can't act like this
Don't tell me what I can and can't do!
I don't get it,
what can't you do here?
What's the big deal? How can you
go out in front of the audience
if you can't even tie a simple knot?
Tie it!
Come on
You tie it, tie it
Come on, tie it!
- You can't?
- Marius, easy
- Why?
- Calm down
What for?
You can't!
You can't
I can
Excuse me, but where
can I find Antanas?
What's this?
An invitation to the theater
I got a role
Emilia, wait
Kristina wrote Korsakas a complaint
What?
Can you imagine, the bitch?
She wrote all kinds of stuff
That Marius is ruining the actor's talent
that his artistic decisions aren't
in line with the spirit of the times
that he's putting on an anti-Soviet play.
How do you know that?
I overheard it
You know how she screams.
- So what's going to happen now?
- I don't know
But I'm afraid that she's not
going to leave it at that
So if anything happens, just say so,
because we're all behind you.
Thanks.
Kids, buy some pastries, they're good
and fresh, with cabbage or poppy seeds
- Do you have any with meat?
- With cabbage or poppy seeds
- With cabbage
- With cabbage And one with poppy seeds
- Thank you
- Enjoy
- And come by tomorrow, we'll
have some with meat - OK!
Get up
Say your lines.
Say your lines.
- Say them now
- What, sir, do you want?
It's just a little nothing
Let me in your blouse
Is that all?
I will open my heart to you,
and the gates to freedom
I don't need freedom if it is given
to me by someone else's hand.
I don't need freedom if it is
given to me by someone else's
So what do you see in this scene?
Who do you see when you look at me?
What's going on in this scene?
We discussed this-
Kablukov is your fianc
But he's scum
You hate him, right?
You can't stand him
His every touch, his every word,
his every gesture
He's pallid, fat, blemished.
He collapses on you every night
with that big, white stomach
and smelly armpits.
He licks you.
Think about a person you despise.
One specific person
Unleash something Get mad at yourself Someone
from your most detestable nightmares
When you wake up in the morning
and can't wash it off
You can't wash it off because he's sticky,
slimy, clinging, like, like a leech
Like. Like a tick embedded in your
skin that you can't brush off
he just lurks inside every second
like a disease, like pain, like. Cancer
Come on! Come on!
Squeeze him out of yourself!
No!
You louse!
Give me the other one
Poetry! It is a hymn to the
warriors and the unknown soldiers
Who come to rape our mothers and sisters,
leaving only blood and the seed of Satan
To the temples of gods
Whose altars have been exchanged for
a fat stomach hundreds of times
It is a hymn to papa Caesar
to papa Caesar, whose lucid mind
leads us into the bright distance
where we perch, free, behind bars sucking the foul air
into our chests as if it were the spirit of freedom
and feeding each other lies, and
singing the hymn to the god of betrayal
who is soiled with the blood of white lambs
Not bad
It's the right direction
I want to tell you a story
about an actor.
There was this actor he
wasn't bad, talented
- The audience loved him.
- I'm not saying anything
I'm not asking you anything.
That actor got an assignment.
Like always-what to do, how to do it
But you see, that actor
decided to play the hero
Suddenly, one day everyone remembered,
how those artists, poets, actors.
They just keep killing themselves.
And
themselves
There's going to be a play
Based on this
Who told you to?
It's going to be about the struggle of the
working people against tsarist oppression.
You still don't understand
who you're dealing with?
Here, you see this?
Now we have it, and suddenly, it's gone
Emilia's gone.
- What, didn't your mom tell you?
- I don't have a mom
And I don't have a dad. I don't
even remember what they look like.
I don't have anything
Anything at all
You're afraid of me
YOU'RE afraid of me
Of a little girl who you can't take
anything away from because people like YOU
have already taken everything.
But you are such a whore
- Kristina, if.
- Bitches in heat like you come here in throngs
You think you just spread
your legs and what?
A star.
Now Marius is screwing you, and then
someone else will, and then someone else
So go ahead and be that star.
For now
Then someone younger will come along and
they'll throw you out into the street.
That's the kind of career
we have here, kid.
And when you give Marius..
Just don't puke, OK?
What, hey, wait!
What is this?!
To the right.
Left.
Coffee, cake
You said you live alone
This is Brunhilda!
Brunhilda, this is Emilia
Please be acquainted
She's my dad's He brought her home
when they closed the university.
He said she's his second love
- What does you mom think about that?
- Mom was already dead
My father planted these apple trees
I was just a little kid
I learned how to prune them.
It's actually about time I did
Everything is overgrown
How overgrown everything is
But after the harvest
Marius, aren't you afraid?
Of what?
At the theater they're saying that
we really went overboard this time
- that they might ban the play
- When have they ever said anything else?
When we have a drink after the play, it's all
"Marius, here at the theater we're like a family,
we're like a fist that can strike
a blow against the system"
But when the time comes to do
something, no one's there
And then Korsakas is like, "Marius, you
have to learn to make compromises"
I can't I can't I don't know how
When they came for my father, they
gave us a few minutes to say goodbye.
He kneeled down next
to me and said,
"Son, now everyone's going to tell you that
I'm a criminal, an enemy of the people
Everyone will lie They'll lie shamelessly, to the
entire world And the entire world will believe it
But not you"
And then they took him away
I never learned to live
with a full stomach
I never learned.
And you never will
That's enough lying around
Get up!
Now you're going to prove it to me
What, are you scared?
Darius! Darius!
Darius.
Help!
Those actors they just
keep killing themselves
So what are you doing?
What are you doing?
- What am I doing?
- I'm asking you
What are you doing, Leon?
We don't work like that
We haven't worked like that in a long time. It's not
1951. Do you understand what I'm saying to you?
You asked if they're digging stuff up
on you, and well, my dear, they are
And they're digging deep
I don't know what you're up to, and to
tell you the truth, I don't want to know
If you're drowning, then drown on your own.
Got it? On your own
You shouldn't have strung that kid up
And you know what the
most important thing is in all this?
To stay alive
To survive
They always let us in to
watch the dress rehearsal
Madam, you misunderstood
Go look for those madams
of yours in America
- Ma'am, can students get in?
- No! The authorities said no
So what kind of authorities are they?
Afraid of the voice of the people?
Madam, we're not afraid
of authorities like that.
Not afraid. When you freeze your rear end
off in Siberia, then you'll be afraid
They're not afraid.
They're not letting people in the theater
They're afraid that people
will find out what they're banning
Did you see?
- Did you see who came to the rehearsal?
- Who?
I guarantee it -they're
going to ban our play.
Julius,
what are you worried about? You're a
communist-nothing will happen to you.
You can always say that I threatened
you, that you had no choice
And a drunken soldier brought
a girl to the stable
where his friends were making merry
and gave her vodka
all night, until sunrise
The earth filled with terrible guilt
Moonflowers, stinging nettle and creeping
thistles sprouted up in an ugly place
And the girl lay there,
no longer calling on God for help
And the people didn't see her
for three days and three nights
First you will destroy love, because that
is the connection that is hardest to break
And after renouncing your friends and family
loving no one and detesting everything
- So, are you ready?
- My stomach is full of butterflies
Butterflies?
Butterflies are good Cockroaches
would be bad, but butterflies are good
Emilia, you're on
You will go to look for a place for
your grave, the beginning of true life
Emilia
Emilia
Emilia
I have come to greet you,
as your betrothed
I know you have not
yet made a vow to me
but you are already able
to accept my gifts.
From overseas?
And what is wrong with your own village,
which is not adorned by foreign beauty
Where plain rue nestles to the ground,
and intoxicates our hearts oh, so sweetly
Can a gift take the place
of a beating heart?
I will drink water from my own well"
So.
The director has shown
all of his visions
Indeed, we have a remarkably artistic picture
of the struggle of the people against tsarism
Go ahead, comrades Please
Well
I would like to say that
I liked the play.
But I did not like the
performance at all
Yes, but we all have to admit
that this is a working version
Maybe I could see a few
small mistakes too
But you have to agree that
Well, we can always revise it. We can always
adjust something, solve the nuances, problems.
And what am I supposed to make of
the excessive use of blood in the play?
Especially when the blood is not being
portrayed as that of a sacrifice
It is the symbol not of blood that
was shed in the fight for something
but of senseless cruelty
Crime
And for some reason, this crime is directly
identified with the red flag of communism
Comrade Korsakas,
I want to ask you,
In the name of what is this
play being staged, huh?
We have to educate the people according to
the concept of internationalism, correct?
And what is this?
This is. This is blatant nationalism
Comrade Simkus, you're exaggerating
Exaggerating!
Yes, you would have to be completely blind and
deaf to not understand what the play is about.
In my opinion that is,
in our opinion
this is clearly the unenviable work
of a young, ideologically immature
artist who is still completely
undeveloped in terms of creativity
One who has obviously succumbed to the influence
of anti-Soviets and various dissidents
So what's the point of this whole carnival?
You condemned everything In advance
Those artists are sensitive. Let's forgive
him for losing his temper like that.
I can change a few scenes I can.
I can revise some nuances
That's exactly what
I'm saying, Marius!
See, I can feel that we're
about to reach a compromise.
That compromise, it's haunting me.
Compromise, Communist, Komsomol.
Are they going to ban the play?
- Komsorg, Kom..
- Marius, yes, yes.
We'll make a compromise.
We?
We
We!
We already strangled
this whole thing
We!
We killed this entire business
We killed the truth
We made ourselves some stupid hunting
trophy out of it and call it the truth.
When in fact, we're living every day,
every second, in some sort of lie.
He's going to get burned,
honest to God.
- Compromise!
- He's going to get burned
Compromise!
This entire society has rotted
because of this whole compromise
We're soaking in this swamp,
and what's keeping it going?
No, not the belief in a bright
tomorrow, not going to church. No,
not the army or security forces No! It's every decent
Lithuanian's fear of losing his cracked trough!
And what has all this made us?
Traitors We betrayed Lithuania
They laid their heads to rest in the
forest, and we betrayed them
You and I
Take that off
Take that off, you'll freeze.
Love has come perhaps for the first time
to those old blackened halls.
Don't go.
Marius, please don't go
Marius, I'm begging you
They didn't give me a choice
- This is my fault.
- No, it's not
I want to tell you
You know what they said to me?
They look me right in the eyes and say
Don't you feel a sense of
despair, meaninglessness?
Don't you think about suicide sometimes?
After all, you artists, you're always
They threaten you They're cowards
- they're more afraid than we are
What's going to happen now?
I'm not going to fell the Taiga
To Siberia
There's a theater there.
To exile
Don't be dramatic-people
have come back from there too.
A handful.
I'll come back
I promise.
Hurry up, we're about to go.
You wanted to run away
without saying goodbye
This is like a business trip
What are you lying to me for?
- Passenger, are you coming?
- Yes Just a moment.
Take care of Emilia
Which one?
Both, take care of them both
What the.?
Read it out loud, so
everyone can hear.
Soviet Lithuania is going through
a period of acute class struggle
Our theater is harboring activities
of bourgeois and nationalist elements
directed against the consolidation
of the Soviet system in our local culture"
So it's because of you, you bastard,
that they banned the play
- You denounced Marius!
- I didn't denounce anyone For the love of God!
You're a communist,
you don't believe in God
Where should I put this?
What is it?
What do you mean what?
It's blood for your play
Marius said that paint won't do
What?
Fucking blood for your fucking play
There's not going to be any play,
they banned the play!
You know what,
go shit yourself, OK?
Now you won't even be able
to take a shit in peace.
You'll be scared that
someone's watching you.
So who's the traitor? Hm?
Maybe it's you, my dear?
Not you?
No, not you
This is like a game,
let's look for the traitor.
So, maybe it's you?
- No, not you.
- Stop messing around
What's wrong?
- So maybe you're the traitor, huh?
- Go to you know where
I am
Why?
I had to.
Wait, Emilia,
please, say it isn't so
I'm begging you,
say that it wasn't you
It was me, Andrius, I wrote it
I'm begging you, say
that it wasn't you
Just lie, dammit!
Emilia, come on!
It was me
After the war, the French
used to shave fascist whores bald.
Miss, miss, miss!
They brought her in unconscious
But now she's come to
By the way, we found this
scrap of paper in her coat pocket.
It had a telephone
number on it so I.
Please, come in.
Heroism, you say.
What kind?
To rot in the forest?
Or to survive?
To stay alive
Build houses, write books
Bring up children.
That's enough lying around
Get up!
You
Know how long being a partisan lasts?
Six months.
Six fucking months!
I'd already spent
three months in the bunker
Three
And I wrote during all three months
Like a madman
And I only had three months left to live.
Three months
Now you're going
to prove it to me.
What,
Are you scared?
I'm here about the play.
Oh, right
But there won't be any play
There's no director
And no lead actress
We don't have them.
They fired the theater director!
- And the authorities banned the play
- I'm the authorities to you!
I'm not deaf
I'm just saying that
there isn't going to be any.
Now listen carefully
This is a state order, got it?
Yes, yes Of course.
Excuse me, but perhaps
you have a spare ticket?
I can't
I'm counting to three
One
But I did everything, everything!
- Two
- I betrayed everyone
I betrayed everyone, you hear me?
What else do you want from me?
And now you're
an enemy of the people
- I can't. I'm not like that
- Do it!
I can't Please.
Good boy. Leon
Good boy
There's no horror left, no fear.?
Come in. Come in, comrade, come in
We replaced the blood with water.
And of course we got rid
of all those double meanings
Right, but what about that nationalism?
No. The word "Lithuania"
was removed everywhere
And a drunken soldier
brought a girl to the stable
where his friends
were making merry
and they gave her vodka
all night, until sunrise
and then they unveiled her chastity
as the sun came up, one by one
The earth filled with terrible guilt.
Moonflowers, stinging nettle and creeping
thistles sprouted up in an ugly place
And the girl lay there
no longer calling on God for help
and the people didn't see her
for three days and three nights
And you will isolate yourself from
your friends and family
and then loving no one and detesting everything,
you will leave your village or town
to look for a place for your grave
the beginning of true life
What is she doing?
Emilia
What's going to happen now?
EMILIA!
I have come to greet
you, as your betrothed.
From overseas?
And what is wrong with your own village,
which is not adorned by foreign beauty?
I didn't want to die
Can you understand?
I didn't want to die
I betrayed them all
I betrayed them, I killed
them with these very hands!
So how does it feel
when you understand
that you've been clinging to the words of
your father's killer your entire life?
When you've read every single
line a thousand times?
When you were really just soaking
your hands in your father's blood.
How does it feel?
Huh? Huh?
Leon! Get over here!
And there is no martyr or prophet
And nothing is concealed
that will not become known
What you are doing in the dark
will be visible in the light
What you whisper in private
will be proclaimed from the roofs
And you will come back.
You will come back permanently.
Thoughts and all my being, at the source, where Your
passion and pride have begun for your near suffering.
Ceslovas!
What are you doing?
We have to, Jonas. Just look-
people are hanging on every word
So what?
Who's better off because of it? Huh?
Lithuania
- Lithuania will be better off
- There is no Lithuania.
They shot it, deported it,
drowned it in drainage canals
Jonas, I'm begging you, let's be amicable
I'll answer for it myself
Get out of my.
Poetry! It is a hymn to the
warriors and the unknown soldiers
who come to rape our mothers and sisters
leaving only blood and the seed of Satan
It is a hymn to papa Caesar, whose lucid
mind leads us into the bright distance
where we perch, free, behind bars,
sucking the foul air into our chests
as if it were the spirit of freedom, and feeding each
other lies and singing the hymn to the god of betrayal
who is soiled with the blood of white lambs
The hymn to the god of betrayal who is
soiled with the blood of white lambs
No one will understand it
Too many intricacies
They'll understand
The women in the audience
will break into tears
and the men will act
like they don't care,
but they'll cry anyway
Lithuania will be free.
And then you will realize that
the dagger which you raised
above the head of you brother
has infected your blood
That the poison that you put in
their food has paralyzed your liver
And you will rage like rabid animals until you fall
to the ground when you see the terrible mistake
and the Earth will not take you in
You cannot protect yourselves, leaders,
by hiding behind borders and guards
When you lose vital contact with your brothers
you will lose flexibility in your joints
your cooling blood will
stop feeding your brain
and you will start to rot like a
fish or a state-from the head down
Everyone! Look!
The crown It shines,
dazzles, intoxicates
I despised the crown and
hungered for it as salvation
I will look again to make
sure it is not bloody
It seems not.
And what is within it?
Justice?
God?
There is no God,
nor is there justice
So what, then? Rubies, gold?
Or the power of control?
I wanted to challenge death
But I summoned
With all my heart, I summoned life.
Be free, oh Lithuania, for ever and ever
And be just and good to all.
Bravo! Bravo!
Emilia, Emilia
I'm sorry, I had no choice.
I love the theater too much
Young lady, where are we off to?
- To Novosibirsk.
- Oh! Not Sochi?
No. I need to go to Novosibirsk
So that means Moscow
You'll go to Moscow
and switch trains there.
Oh, love.
When everything is frozen
through the iron frost
There are always those
who come alone
They scratch their hands through
the ice until they feel the pain
They punch a hole, so that
the others could bathe
Everything is burned,
they walk through the ashes
There are always
those who come alone
Hands have burned in the
fire a thousand times
Until a well is dug, so that
others may drink from it
Are you the One?
The one with the injured hands
Are you the One?
The one with the injured hands
Pain will flow as honey, there
where we are reborn to seek hope
Blood will flow as honey, there while
we are alive, again will seek new hope
Translation: Kristin Baird
Bravo!
Bravo!
Emilia, Emilia!
I'm sorry
I. I couldn't help it, I.
I love the theater too much
So you did it Thank you
Bravo!
You think it's brave to go out there and set
yourself on fire like that? A real feat, right?
So what do you suggest?
Selling out the way you did?
OK, fine
You don't care about the theater,
about us-you don't give a damn
But you.. Think about yourself!
They could lock you up in the nuthouse!
And they definitely won't let you stay in the
theater Do you at least understand that?
I'm not staying here.
So you're betraying us again
Let's go, let's go
Good, good Emilia, careful.
Emilia, do you remember
how we used to play theater?
So today we're going
to play again, OK?
Do you remember when
we were at the theater?
There were a lot of men there
And they all talked really loud, right?
Remember, it was
even a little scary
So now I really want to ask you to play
the part of the bravest girl in the world
who's not afraid of anything at all
You brave little girl
You little hero of mine
Now I'm going to hide you
Don't be afraid of anything.
May 1972 Kaunas, Lithuania
Blame only the regime for my death.
Romas Kalanta
Mom! Look!
You'll get your bath,
and coffee, and cocoa
- You know, maybe a little bit - A little bit? The
guys say I'm the spitting image! I could act!
- Would you like to?
- No way, what kind of job is that?
Raise your arm, lower your ass,
raise your leg
But this-the collective farm.
now that's a job!
- Well I'm going to act in the theater
- Get out, seriously?
- Seriously
- I've never been to the theater
- Never?
- Uh-uh
Then I'll invite you, definitely
I think for the average
Soviet man, the theater
But everything there is
so exulting, so pure!
Yeah, pure- and there I am,
with these dirty boots of mine, right?
I'll suffocate, oh, I'll suffocate
Those black walls crushed me
- Oh no, stop, stop, please don't!
- Those black walls. The spirit of God does not exist in the world
- I can't hear you I can't hear you - I'll
suffocate, oh, I'll suffocate Those black..
Stop, stop, stop!
So you'll find that theater of yours?
Will you find your garage?
- Emilia.
- Yes?
- Will you invite me to a show?
- I'll think about it
Take care!
Freedom for Lithuania!
Freedom for Lithuania!
- Excuse me, let me through, let me through - Hey,
you're going in the wrong direction Come with us.
- What? Where?
- Come with us, it's more fun.
Just look around,
everyone wants freedom
- I have to go to the theater!
- Where?
- To the theater!
- What are you doing? Stop!
OK, let's go
To the farmstead, get moving.
Let's go!
- Hi Leon
- Hi.
Hold on.. I have one of
yesterday's for you
- How many did we get yesterday?
- Four hundred.
And where did they put them?
Eight are getting time, and they shaved
the other hippies bald and let them go
- Here They gave one over to us
- Why?
They said it's your field,
anti-Soviet literature
Here, read it
- What's his name?
- Her name. Some actress.
What are you standing there for?
Sit down
What's your name?
Emilia
So, an actress
I've been appointed.
To the theater
From the conservatory
So you'll have to invite me to a show
Sit down!
What is this, you've decided
to try and scare me?
And in general
young lady, maybe there's
something you want to tell me?
Let me go To the theater
Please
Of course, this is no dormitory,
but I understand
how hard it is these days
to find a place to stay. Wow
So.
No roaming around
the theater at night.
No monkey business,
no boys, no drinking.
What happened to your face?
- I fell.
- Hm.
This one's yours
This is for the stage door
Thank you
Rehearsal is at 10:00
Actors aren't late here
Welcome
Comrade Ceslovas, this isn't just a table
He's seating us here
like apostles at the last supper
and hoping that we won't understand anything.
Or that we'll pretend that we don't understand!
So maybe he'll make us sing
some religious hymn to finish it off?
This is an artistic solution
They're fanatics of their idea-apostles!
Right, apostles
I can smell that nationalistic
underground of yours a kilometer away.
Kil-AH-meter
A kil-AH-meter too!
Guys, come on
- Ceslovas, all this over some stupid table
- Yeah, really
This isn't about the table.
This is for Lithuania
Excuse me.
They already brought the bones.
Come on, they're here!
Let's go
What's this now?
Hi, it's good you're here
I need some with more meat, with meat.
Yeah, yeah, that one.
Give it to me, give it to me
This is mine, mine
I got here first
- How many did you take?
- I was first and I need it
Bones?
The Meat Combine takes care of us.
We give them a better play,
and they give us better bones
Have you settled in?
How is it?
- I just expected it to be totally different.
- The theater?
- It always seemed so.. You know, so..
- Magical.
There's nothing magic here
- It's a quagmire
- The theater?
This whole damn
system is a theater..
You're neither sobbing
nor quarreling
We're neither returning
nor coming back
As long as we have the road,
we're moving forward
As long as we have our hearing,
we're listening to the song
We all sang as well as we could
We all.
I want to welcome
the newest addition to our tight-knit
family here at the theater
- the young artist. Elena?
- Emilia.
Emilia!
Each person who has consecrated his
life to the theater is, in truth
renouncing himself completely
This is how he gives all of himself
to the playwrights, the directors,
his partners and the audience
And I have no doubt that our theater is
the perfect cherry orchard, where
- Orchard-more like a collective farm
- A garden
where the talent of a
young artist can blossom
So, my dear Emilia
I'm sure you will manage to feel at
home with this group and this stage
and that you will one day shine brighter
than some of our theater's veterans
- I welcome you
- Thank you.
And now a word from the
future living classic
future People's Artist of the USSR
and the Lithuanian SSR-Emilia!
- Poem
- Poem, poem.
Poetry
It is a hymn to the warriors
and the unknown soldiers
who come to rape
our mothers and sisters
To the temples of gods
whose altars have been exchanged
for a fat stomach hundreds of times
It is a hymn to papa Caesar, whose lucid
mind leads us into the bright distance
where we perch, free, behind bars
sucking the foul air into our chests
as if it were the spirit of freedom
and feeding each other lies, and singing
the hymn to the god of betrayal
who is soiled with the
blood of white lambs!
Not bad Just..
I didn't have time to do that then
Rehearsal tomorrow
- is at nine
- Eleven, director.
Nine.
Bravo, bravo, bravo.
You know
whatever kind of ideas
he's trying to carry out, he doesn't
have the right to break an actor's back.
An over-ambitious director, he
stifles both the playwright's idea
Director?
Yes, director
He stifles both the playwright's
idea and the actor's talent
Director
So we actors
we have to stick together and
resist this directorial despotism
And you were great.
Way to go.
You got up and, how did it go
we're feeding each other lies, and
singing the hymn to the god of betrayal
By the way, who's the author?
I'm telling you,
they can access your papers, but
they never go and look themselves
The authorities give the order..
And I bring it to them
And your file, believe me..
There's a layer of dust that thick
it's been lying there so long
Don't get me wrong,
but maybe you have paranoia or something?
You could take a vacation, relax
I'm serious
Wait, maybe it's not our guys
checking you out, huh?
Then I have no idea
You have a cornflower in your hand,
completely differently than after the war
Wonderful times have come
Pearls of dew are hanging in the forest
From happiness, not a hangover,
You would drop into a floweryley
And above the native forest border,
A small breeze drives a cloud away.
All together now
Join in.
- Not now
- Another verse
You listen to a song that
scares a hare at the far end of the field, and you write
perfect lines, that you can shove wherever you want
Comrade Ausra, excuse us please
So it turns out you really are an actress
So, what is it, what?
I cannot understand
So many horrors surround us
and so much senselessness
Who gave this to you?
WHO?
My dad.
My dad wrote it
And who might dad be?
An enemy of the people
This is the last time
I'm asking nicely
Who.sent.you?
No one sent.
There is one step between
a hero and a traitor.
- I'm not a traitor
- A simple question
A simple. Answer
- No one sent me I was sent here from the
conservatory - Don't you try my patience!
- I.
- Quiet!
- I don't.
- Answer me, now!
- I don't know anything.
- Simple and clear, or
- I don't know anything.
- One
- No one sent me I swear I
don't know anything - Two
I need the procedural room
Bring Kostas in
No one informed me
I'm informing you, now.
Leon, but after last time I.
- Shhh.
- Leon
A dark night in late autumn.
Bearers of freedom settled there
Bearers of freedom
He's a good poet WAS
The poems he wrote for children
Only no one knows that in '49 he wrote
songs for bandits in the forests
Leon!
Leon!
Leon!
They arrested Cornflower, Leon
They tortured her!
Just look what the fear of
death does to a person
You can't love the fatherland when
you're rotting somewhere in the swamp
- Please, don't
We promised him a comfy life that every fucking
Little Octobrist would recite his poems
But he betrayed everything
Every last person he knew.
He was a faithful dog
Just the alcohol.
His conscience woke up
Look how heroes of the people die Look!
Get out of here.
Go home, mother
No!
Come on, pick him up!
So, are you going to keep
playing the hero, or what?
You think I'll see this
and shit my pants?
You think you're going to scare me?
I'm the one who does the scaring here
Got it?
This is all I have left of my family.
I don't have anyone to betray
I never have
I. I don't have anything.
We all have someone to betray
Alright, I see it's not funny
Hi there
What's wrong?
Emil.
Right
Is there anything I can. Do?
I...
- You sit.
- I'll wash them.
Come on I.
- It's fine, I'll do it myself.
- I'm sorry It's my. I'll wash them then.
Oh, right OK.
- Could you not stare?
- Oh, yeah. I can
Wrath, vexation, you say
And love?
Love has come, perhaps for
the first time, to those
those old blackened halls, where only
spite and pain had built a nest before
Now love has come.
We cried, like children from joy that
first day when we were alone together
I was looking for you
and I found you
I have been looking for you
from the day I was born
I wanted to challenge death
But I summoned With all my heart,
I summoned life
I want to comprehend
my incomprehensible fate
Wait a minute You wrote this?
- My dad wrote it
- And dad is...?
An enemy of the people
Emilia.
Kristina!
Kristina!
Wait. Wait up
Kris Kristina
I just. Stopped by
Kristina.
Oh, Lithuania! Lithuania!
My love, punish me if there is even
a drop of blood among the diamonds
Save me if there is love shining
for you in the diamonds
Be free, oh Lithuania, for ever and ever
And be just and good to all!
So. What do you think?
While no one is talking, I'd like to
ask a question, if that's alright
Who stole the manure?
- What?
- The manure.
I called the collective
farm yesterday and
they said that they loaded
a truck of manure for us.
So where's the truck?
Listen, we're talking about
the play, about Lithuania
Well we're talking
about the manure
He's right, it's time to
fertilize the garden
Hey, hey, so when did you
sell your actor's soul?
And what did you get? That ration
coupon for a washing machine?
You try washing shit-filled diapers
every day with bloody knuckles,
I'd like to see that
Come on everyone,
just look what material we have
Hold on, hold on
What material?
This isn't material-this is.
the devil only knows what this is.
A woman leading a revolution
And against who-the Great Russian nation!
So what do you have against
women, huh, Julius?
Jonas, you're the director
Say something already!
What, Julius?
Against tsarist rule
Against class inequality
Emilia Plater
The first female revolutionary
But yeah
Obviously. The text is tricky
Exactly, exactly
That's what I'm talking about.
Women!
A female revolutionary!
Like Maryte Melnikaite.
And at the Ministry
it'll breeze right through.
Oh, I've got to go Watch it now.
Before you came,
we had everything
We went on tour, we
performed at the Kremlin
They were going to let us take
our plays abroad To Poland.
What, were the plays any worse?
By the way, they have
a good theater there.
- In Poland?
- At the Kremlin
You idiot
They have a snack bar there where you can
get bananas, and peas and mayonnaise.
I don't like mayonnaise
Learn to make compromises
So it works for them and us. Understand?
No, Julius, I don't understand
I am Severiute from Uzpaliai Village,
Where the railway turns to the south,
Where along the tracks I walked barefoot, Like
a pregnant laundress driven out of the house.
Like the last one, at the big table
set out There was no room for me
Behind my back, without me
hearing, you talked, you talked,
Behind my back, without me
hearing, you talked, you talked,
Behind my back, without me
hearing, you talked, you talked
I was not a sister to you,
I just wove the linens
I raised my third mute
brother by myself
I wept in the wooden
bed of my dead father
And did not blame you.
I walked through the frozen earth like through
knives, and plodded through the mud of the village
I lived far from you, from
Uzpaliai Village, miles away,
At night of a small white-headed
baby, white-headed baby
I would talk with the grass
The little hunchback who died the year
before last played the accordion for me
He said he would clothe me in
beer and shoe me with a scythe,
He said he would clothe me in
beer and shoe me with a scythe,
He said he would clothe me in
beer and shoe me with a scythe.
No! No!
- Just give it a try.
- I'm not wearing these rags
These aren't rags
These are costumes for the
play-get used to them
I said no.
Kristina, we already discussed
what this play is about
That this play is about us, about you,
about me, about freedom
About creative freedom that we don't have.
And the freedom to be a person
Yeah, well I also don't understand
what that madhouse has to do with it?
Listen, she's leaving everything
Her parents, her home, her privileges. You
She's rounding up the
men and going to war.
You see, she's sacrificing
herself for freedom
She's giving up her life
And you-you take the shirt,
well, like a dress.
A wedding dress-you see
where I'm going with this?
And it's as if.
It's like the death of freedom
Like this?
And you know,
I thought that maybe
maybe you can stick me in a box
and make me read my lines from there?
There, you got it
Do you understand that I am not a thing
that you can stick in some box!
To read my lines from there!
I'm an actress, understand?
You can't shove an actor
around like a pawn!
You're doing everything
you can to kill the actor
But I want to express my thoughts freely Without
all those bells and whistles And without a fuss
So if these rags cover up your talent, then
maybe there isn't any talent there at all?
Go to hell with that
talent of yours, got it?
I'm not playing this shit
So don't!
You don't have to
I don't think you even could!
What are you looking at?
Rehearsal is over
You can't act like this
Don't tell me what I can and can't do!
I don't get it,
what can't you do here?
What's the big deal? How can you
go out in front of the audience
if you can't even tie a simple knot?
Tie it!
Come on
You tie it, tie it
Come on, tie it!
- You can't?
- Marius, easy
- Why?
- Calm down
What for?
You can't!
You can't
I can
Excuse me, but where
can I find Antanas?
What's this?
An invitation to the theater
I got a role
Emilia, wait
Kristina wrote Korsakas a complaint
What?
Can you imagine, the bitch?
She wrote all kinds of stuff
That Marius is ruining the actor's talent
that his artistic decisions aren't
in line with the spirit of the times
that he's putting on an anti-Soviet play.
How do you know that?
I overheard it
You know how she screams.
- So what's going to happen now?
- I don't know
But I'm afraid that she's not
going to leave it at that
So if anything happens, just say so,
because we're all behind you.
Thanks.
Kids, buy some pastries, they're good
and fresh, with cabbage or poppy seeds
- Do you have any with meat?
- With cabbage or poppy seeds
- With cabbage
- With cabbage And one with poppy seeds
- Thank you
- Enjoy
- And come by tomorrow, we'll
have some with meat - OK!
Get up
Say your lines.
Say your lines.
- Say them now
- What, sir, do you want?
It's just a little nothing
Let me in your blouse
Is that all?
I will open my heart to you,
and the gates to freedom
I don't need freedom if it is given
to me by someone else's hand.
I don't need freedom if it is
given to me by someone else's
So what do you see in this scene?
Who do you see when you look at me?
What's going on in this scene?
We discussed this-
Kablukov is your fianc
But he's scum
You hate him, right?
You can't stand him
His every touch, his every word,
his every gesture
He's pallid, fat, blemished.
He collapses on you every night
with that big, white stomach
and smelly armpits.
He licks you.
Think about a person you despise.
One specific person
Unleash something Get mad at yourself Someone
from your most detestable nightmares
When you wake up in the morning
and can't wash it off
You can't wash it off because he's sticky,
slimy, clinging, like, like a leech
Like. Like a tick embedded in your
skin that you can't brush off
he just lurks inside every second
like a disease, like pain, like. Cancer
Come on! Come on!
Squeeze him out of yourself!
No!
You louse!
Give me the other one
Poetry! It is a hymn to the
warriors and the unknown soldiers
Who come to rape our mothers and sisters,
leaving only blood and the seed of Satan
To the temples of gods
Whose altars have been exchanged for
a fat stomach hundreds of times
It is a hymn to papa Caesar
to papa Caesar, whose lucid mind
leads us into the bright distance
where we perch, free, behind bars sucking the foul air
into our chests as if it were the spirit of freedom
and feeding each other lies, and
singing the hymn to the god of betrayal
who is soiled with the blood of white lambs
Not bad
It's the right direction
I want to tell you a story
about an actor.
There was this actor he
wasn't bad, talented
- The audience loved him.
- I'm not saying anything
I'm not asking you anything.
That actor got an assignment.
Like always-what to do, how to do it
But you see, that actor
decided to play the hero
Suddenly, one day everyone remembered,
how those artists, poets, actors.
They just keep killing themselves.
And
themselves
There's going to be a play
Based on this
Who told you to?
It's going to be about the struggle of the
working people against tsarist oppression.
You still don't understand
who you're dealing with?
Here, you see this?
Now we have it, and suddenly, it's gone
Emilia's gone.
- What, didn't your mom tell you?
- I don't have a mom
And I don't have a dad. I don't
even remember what they look like.
I don't have anything
Anything at all
You're afraid of me
YOU'RE afraid of me
Of a little girl who you can't take
anything away from because people like YOU
have already taken everything.
But you are such a whore
- Kristina, if.
- Bitches in heat like you come here in throngs
You think you just spread
your legs and what?
A star.
Now Marius is screwing you, and then
someone else will, and then someone else
So go ahead and be that star.
For now
Then someone younger will come along and
they'll throw you out into the street.
That's the kind of career
we have here, kid.
And when you give Marius..
Just don't puke, OK?
What, hey, wait!
What is this?!
To the right.
Left.
Coffee, cake
You said you live alone
This is Brunhilda!
Brunhilda, this is Emilia
Please be acquainted
She's my dad's He brought her home
when they closed the university.
He said she's his second love
- What does you mom think about that?
- Mom was already dead
My father planted these apple trees
I was just a little kid
I learned how to prune them.
It's actually about time I did
Everything is overgrown
How overgrown everything is
But after the harvest
Marius, aren't you afraid?
Of what?
At the theater they're saying that
we really went overboard this time
- that they might ban the play
- When have they ever said anything else?
When we have a drink after the play, it's all
"Marius, here at the theater we're like a family,
we're like a fist that can strike
a blow against the system"
But when the time comes to do
something, no one's there
And then Korsakas is like, "Marius, you
have to learn to make compromises"
I can't I can't I don't know how
When they came for my father, they
gave us a few minutes to say goodbye.
He kneeled down next
to me and said,
"Son, now everyone's going to tell you that
I'm a criminal, an enemy of the people
Everyone will lie They'll lie shamelessly, to the
entire world And the entire world will believe it
But not you"
And then they took him away
I never learned to live
with a full stomach
I never learned.
And you never will
That's enough lying around
Get up!
Now you're going to prove it to me
What, are you scared?
Darius! Darius!
Darius.
Help!
Those actors they just
keep killing themselves
So what are you doing?
What are you doing?
- What am I doing?
- I'm asking you
What are you doing, Leon?
We don't work like that
We haven't worked like that in a long time. It's not
1951. Do you understand what I'm saying to you?
You asked if they're digging stuff up
on you, and well, my dear, they are
And they're digging deep
I don't know what you're up to, and to
tell you the truth, I don't want to know
If you're drowning, then drown on your own.
Got it? On your own
You shouldn't have strung that kid up
And you know what the
most important thing is in all this?
To stay alive
To survive
They always let us in to
watch the dress rehearsal
Madam, you misunderstood
Go look for those madams
of yours in America
- Ma'am, can students get in?
- No! The authorities said no
So what kind of authorities are they?
Afraid of the voice of the people?
Madam, we're not afraid
of authorities like that.
Not afraid. When you freeze your rear end
off in Siberia, then you'll be afraid
They're not afraid.
They're not letting people in the theater
They're afraid that people
will find out what they're banning
Did you see?
- Did you see who came to the rehearsal?
- Who?
I guarantee it -they're
going to ban our play.
Julius,
what are you worried about? You're a
communist-nothing will happen to you.
You can always say that I threatened
you, that you had no choice
And a drunken soldier brought
a girl to the stable
where his friends were making merry
and gave her vodka
all night, until sunrise
The earth filled with terrible guilt
Moonflowers, stinging nettle and creeping
thistles sprouted up in an ugly place
And the girl lay there,
no longer calling on God for help
And the people didn't see her
for three days and three nights
First you will destroy love, because that
is the connection that is hardest to break
And after renouncing your friends and family
loving no one and detesting everything
- So, are you ready?
- My stomach is full of butterflies
Butterflies?
Butterflies are good Cockroaches
would be bad, but butterflies are good
Emilia, you're on
You will go to look for a place for
your grave, the beginning of true life
Emilia
Emilia
Emilia
I have come to greet you,
as your betrothed
I know you have not
yet made a vow to me
but you are already able
to accept my gifts.
From overseas?
And what is wrong with your own village,
which is not adorned by foreign beauty
Where plain rue nestles to the ground,
and intoxicates our hearts oh, so sweetly
Can a gift take the place
of a beating heart?
I will drink water from my own well"
So.
The director has shown
all of his visions
Indeed, we have a remarkably artistic picture
of the struggle of the people against tsarism
Go ahead, comrades Please
Well
I would like to say that
I liked the play.
But I did not like the
performance at all
Yes, but we all have to admit
that this is a working version
Maybe I could see a few
small mistakes too
But you have to agree that
Well, we can always revise it. We can always
adjust something, solve the nuances, problems.
And what am I supposed to make of
the excessive use of blood in the play?
Especially when the blood is not being
portrayed as that of a sacrifice
It is the symbol not of blood that
was shed in the fight for something
but of senseless cruelty
Crime
And for some reason, this crime is directly
identified with the red flag of communism
Comrade Korsakas,
I want to ask you,
In the name of what is this
play being staged, huh?
We have to educate the people according to
the concept of internationalism, correct?
And what is this?
This is. This is blatant nationalism
Comrade Simkus, you're exaggerating
Exaggerating!
Yes, you would have to be completely blind and
deaf to not understand what the play is about.
In my opinion that is,
in our opinion
this is clearly the unenviable work
of a young, ideologically immature
artist who is still completely
undeveloped in terms of creativity
One who has obviously succumbed to the influence
of anti-Soviets and various dissidents
So what's the point of this whole carnival?
You condemned everything In advance
Those artists are sensitive. Let's forgive
him for losing his temper like that.
I can change a few scenes I can.
I can revise some nuances
That's exactly what
I'm saying, Marius!
See, I can feel that we're
about to reach a compromise.
That compromise, it's haunting me.
Compromise, Communist, Komsomol.
Are they going to ban the play?
- Komsorg, Kom..
- Marius, yes, yes.
We'll make a compromise.
We?
We
We!
We already strangled
this whole thing
We!
We killed this entire business
We killed the truth
We made ourselves some stupid hunting
trophy out of it and call it the truth.
When in fact, we're living every day,
every second, in some sort of lie.
He's going to get burned,
honest to God.
- Compromise!
- He's going to get burned
Compromise!
This entire society has rotted
because of this whole compromise
We're soaking in this swamp,
and what's keeping it going?
No, not the belief in a bright
tomorrow, not going to church. No,
not the army or security forces No! It's every decent
Lithuanian's fear of losing his cracked trough!
And what has all this made us?
Traitors We betrayed Lithuania
They laid their heads to rest in the
forest, and we betrayed them
You and I
Take that off
Take that off, you'll freeze.
Love has come perhaps for the first time
to those old blackened halls.
Don't go.
Marius, please don't go
Marius, I'm begging you
They didn't give me a choice
- This is my fault.
- No, it's not
I want to tell you
You know what they said to me?
They look me right in the eyes and say
Don't you feel a sense of
despair, meaninglessness?
Don't you think about suicide sometimes?
After all, you artists, you're always
They threaten you They're cowards
- they're more afraid than we are
What's going to happen now?
I'm not going to fell the Taiga
To Siberia
There's a theater there.
To exile
Don't be dramatic-people
have come back from there too.
A handful.
I'll come back
I promise.
Hurry up, we're about to go.
You wanted to run away
without saying goodbye
This is like a business trip
What are you lying to me for?
- Passenger, are you coming?
- Yes Just a moment.
Take care of Emilia
Which one?
Both, take care of them both
What the.?
Read it out loud, so
everyone can hear.
Soviet Lithuania is going through
a period of acute class struggle
Our theater is harboring activities
of bourgeois and nationalist elements
directed against the consolidation
of the Soviet system in our local culture"
So it's because of you, you bastard,
that they banned the play
- You denounced Marius!
- I didn't denounce anyone For the love of God!
You're a communist,
you don't believe in God
Where should I put this?
What is it?
What do you mean what?
It's blood for your play
Marius said that paint won't do
What?
Fucking blood for your fucking play
There's not going to be any play,
they banned the play!
You know what,
go shit yourself, OK?
Now you won't even be able
to take a shit in peace.
You'll be scared that
someone's watching you.
So who's the traitor? Hm?
Maybe it's you, my dear?
Not you?
No, not you
This is like a game,
let's look for the traitor.
So, maybe it's you?
- No, not you.
- Stop messing around
What's wrong?
- So maybe you're the traitor, huh?
- Go to you know where
I am
Why?
I had to.
Wait, Emilia,
please, say it isn't so
I'm begging you,
say that it wasn't you
It was me, Andrius, I wrote it
I'm begging you, say
that it wasn't you
Just lie, dammit!
Emilia, come on!
It was me
After the war, the French
used to shave fascist whores bald.
Miss, miss, miss!
They brought her in unconscious
But now she's come to
By the way, we found this
scrap of paper in her coat pocket.
It had a telephone
number on it so I.
Please, come in.
Heroism, you say.
What kind?
To rot in the forest?
Or to survive?
To stay alive
Build houses, write books
Bring up children.
That's enough lying around
Get up!
You
Know how long being a partisan lasts?
Six months.
Six fucking months!
I'd already spent
three months in the bunker
Three
And I wrote during all three months
Like a madman
And I only had three months left to live.
Three months
Now you're going
to prove it to me.
What,
Are you scared?
I'm here about the play.
Oh, right
But there won't be any play
There's no director
And no lead actress
We don't have them.
They fired the theater director!
- And the authorities banned the play
- I'm the authorities to you!
I'm not deaf
I'm just saying that
there isn't going to be any.
Now listen carefully
This is a state order, got it?
Yes, yes Of course.
Excuse me, but perhaps
you have a spare ticket?
I can't
I'm counting to three
One
But I did everything, everything!
- Two
- I betrayed everyone
I betrayed everyone, you hear me?
What else do you want from me?
And now you're
an enemy of the people
- I can't. I'm not like that
- Do it!
I can't Please.
Good boy. Leon
Good boy
There's no horror left, no fear.?
Come in. Come in, comrade, come in
We replaced the blood with water.
And of course we got rid
of all those double meanings
Right, but what about that nationalism?
No. The word "Lithuania"
was removed everywhere
And a drunken soldier
brought a girl to the stable
where his friends
were making merry
and they gave her vodka
all night, until sunrise
and then they unveiled her chastity
as the sun came up, one by one
The earth filled with terrible guilt.
Moonflowers, stinging nettle and creeping
thistles sprouted up in an ugly place
And the girl lay there
no longer calling on God for help
and the people didn't see her
for three days and three nights
And you will isolate yourself from
your friends and family
and then loving no one and detesting everything,
you will leave your village or town
to look for a place for your grave
the beginning of true life
What is she doing?
Emilia
What's going to happen now?
EMILIA!
I have come to greet
you, as your betrothed.
From overseas?
And what is wrong with your own village,
which is not adorned by foreign beauty?
I didn't want to die
Can you understand?
I didn't want to die
I betrayed them all
I betrayed them, I killed
them with these very hands!
So how does it feel
when you understand
that you've been clinging to the words of
your father's killer your entire life?
When you've read every single
line a thousand times?
When you were really just soaking
your hands in your father's blood.
How does it feel?
Huh? Huh?
Leon! Get over here!
And there is no martyr or prophet
And nothing is concealed
that will not become known
What you are doing in the dark
will be visible in the light
What you whisper in private
will be proclaimed from the roofs
And you will come back.
You will come back permanently.
Thoughts and all my being, at the source, where Your
passion and pride have begun for your near suffering.
Ceslovas!
What are you doing?
We have to, Jonas. Just look-
people are hanging on every word
So what?
Who's better off because of it? Huh?
Lithuania
- Lithuania will be better off
- There is no Lithuania.
They shot it, deported it,
drowned it in drainage canals
Jonas, I'm begging you, let's be amicable
I'll answer for it myself
Get out of my.
Poetry! It is a hymn to the
warriors and the unknown soldiers
who come to rape our mothers and sisters
leaving only blood and the seed of Satan
It is a hymn to papa Caesar, whose lucid
mind leads us into the bright distance
where we perch, free, behind bars,
sucking the foul air into our chests
as if it were the spirit of freedom, and feeding each
other lies and singing the hymn to the god of betrayal
who is soiled with the blood of white lambs
The hymn to the god of betrayal who is
soiled with the blood of white lambs
No one will understand it
Too many intricacies
They'll understand
The women in the audience
will break into tears
and the men will act
like they don't care,
but they'll cry anyway
Lithuania will be free.
And then you will realize that
the dagger which you raised
above the head of you brother
has infected your blood
That the poison that you put in
their food has paralyzed your liver
And you will rage like rabid animals until you fall
to the ground when you see the terrible mistake
and the Earth will not take you in
You cannot protect yourselves, leaders,
by hiding behind borders and guards
When you lose vital contact with your brothers
you will lose flexibility in your joints
your cooling blood will
stop feeding your brain
and you will start to rot like a
fish or a state-from the head down
Everyone! Look!
The crown It shines,
dazzles, intoxicates
I despised the crown and
hungered for it as salvation
I will look again to make
sure it is not bloody
It seems not.
And what is within it?
Justice?
God?
There is no God,
nor is there justice
So what, then? Rubies, gold?
Or the power of control?
I wanted to challenge death
But I summoned
With all my heart, I summoned life.
Be free, oh Lithuania, for ever and ever
And be just and good to all.
Bravo! Bravo!
Emilia, Emilia
I'm sorry, I had no choice.
I love the theater too much
Young lady, where are we off to?
- To Novosibirsk.
- Oh! Not Sochi?
No. I need to go to Novosibirsk
So that means Moscow
You'll go to Moscow
and switch trains there.
Oh, love.
When everything is frozen
through the iron frost
There are always those
who come alone
They scratch their hands through
the ice until they feel the pain
They punch a hole, so that
the others could bathe
Everything is burned,
they walk through the ashes
There are always
those who come alone
Hands have burned in the
fire a thousand times
Until a well is dug, so that
others may drink from it
Are you the One?
The one with the injured hands
Are you the One?
The one with the injured hands
Pain will flow as honey, there
where we are reborn to seek hope
Blood will flow as honey, there while
we are alive, again will seek new hope
Translation: Kristin Baird