The theme of the sea in films is usually linked to the existential experience: the endless horizon emphasises the fragility of human life, and the rhythm of waves reminds of the flow of time and continuous change. In Algimantas Puipa’s film “A Woman and Her Four Men” (1983) created on the basis of a novella by Holger Drachmann, the world of old Prussian Lithuanian fishermen is inseparable from the sea. It determines the fates of a woman (actress Jūratė Onaitytė) and all her four men who obey the eternal cycle of nature. The water and the sand make the wheel of existence meaningful, where birth and death constitute an inseparable whole. In Andrius Šiuša’s film “And He Bid You Farewell” (1993), a peninsula of the Curonian Spit becomes a shelter place for strangers and people with mental disorders. In one of the most remarkable scenes captured by a cameraman Algimantas Mikutėnas, all characters gather in a rusty ship cast ashore. Here, they can be who they really are and escape the reality and break free from the norms superimposed by society, if only for a short while. In Šarūnas Bartas’s “Freedom” (2000), the scenery of North Africa’s coast highlights loneliness of the film’s characters and total impossibility of freedom. The raging ocean becomes an equal participant of the story, whereas birds, crabs and gigantic waves much more harmoniously blend into the world order than people who are wandering along the coast. An architect Jonas Pajaujis who is a hero of a film “Good Day” (director Henrikas Šablevičius, 1993) seemingly becomes one with the landscape of the island of Gotland. Even though the sea has separated him from occupied Lithuania, it remained a sign of spiritual bond with the homeland. In Vytautas V. Landsbergis’s film “The Old Man by the Sea” (2022) dedicated to the director’s father who is a politician and a musicologist, Vytautas Landsbergis, in front of the sea he reflects on his life path, accumulated experience and a sense of eternity.  

Quotes 

“The seaside as a shelter for misfits, fantasisers, geniuses, as a space where they can hide from routine, ‘normal relationships’ was most suggestively shown in Andrius Šiuša’s film “And He Bid You Farewell” (1993). Perhaps no other film exploited the diversity of landscapes, textures, perspectives, nature and architecture of the seaside and the lagoon region with so much love and selfishness (spelling is correct, the text is available on-line at: https://literaturairmenas.lt/kinas/rasa-paukstyte-vieta-atostogauti-ir-filosofuoti-o-gyventi). The creation of the film was sponsored. A. Šiuša, a cameraman Algimantas Mikutėnas, an artist Naglis Karvelis created the film in Neringa; it was based on a novella “Notes of Mauritz Bred” by a Lithuanian writer in emigration, Eduardas Cinzas, (Rasa Paukštytė. “The Place to Spend Holidays. Or Maybe to Live? Fragments of the Seaside in Lithuanian Films” (in Lithuanian ‘Vieta atostogauti ir filosofuoti. O gyventi? Pajūrio fragmentai lietuviškame kine’). In: “Literatūra ir menas”, 07.06.2024, No. 11 (3793).)

“In our mythology, the sea is a strong, archetypical symbol. Of eternity, infinity, god, afterlife; by the sea, we always feel this restless and blessing greatness.” – V. V. Landsbergis (see: https://lsveikata.lt).