In the period of Independent Lithuania (1918–1940), national film chronicles were rapidly developing. First filmmakers tried to capture various sites of Lithuania, including the most prominent seaside resort town of the country, Palanga. In the film chronicles recorded in August of 1929, the Baltic Sea is depicted as a fun space to relax: full of activities, joy and opportunities to socialise. An actor of theatres “Werewolf” and “Nation’s Theatre”, Juozas Olšauskas (1893–1973), and his friends appear among other holidaymakers. 

When Soviets occupied Lithuania, even landscapes of the seaside obtained an ideological tone. In an updated studio of the Film Chronicles in Kaunas, propagandist film journals “Soviet Lithuania” started being made after April 1946. They were shown throughout almost entire period of occupation and formed an ill-shaped societal attitude towards reality. A film journal directed by Liudgardas Maculevičius on a summer camp for pioneers in Palanga was created following the stylistics of socialist realism: raised tone and optimistic mood reflected the official ideology, and recreation by the sea was understood as a very important part of Soviet education.   

The first feature film for children that was created solely by Lithuanian cinematographers, “The Blue Horizon” (director Vytautas Mikalauskas, 1957), is based on a dominating romantic image of the sea. In this adventure comedy, Vytukas and his friends who dream of becoming seamen and enter Klaipėda Maritime School run away from home. The sea is children’s greatest goal: it reflects a bright, limitless world which is full of adventures and new horizons.