Whether it's playing games in a military zone, cheating at school tests, crossing borders for cheap thrills or doing whatever it takes to make illicit money - these boys know that with every risk, they move closer and closer to an irreversible jeopardy. Deftly exploring masculinity and peer-pressure, these five coming-of-age tales from France, the Netherlands and Lithuania from burgeoning new filmmakers demonstrate that sometimes young hearts can run dangerously free. The short films are: Gotta (2015); The Last Day of School (2019); Tree House [Cabane] (2016); Gameboy (2014); Pollux (2018).
A single music teacher - Lina meets famous TV-host Tomas. They make a deal - Lina goes on online dates and provides Tomas with funny stories from her dates for his show in exchange for a new piano for her school.
The celebration of the Mother's Day is getting closer. Like every year 16-year-old Nerka and his friends are planning to steal flowers to give to their mother's, but this year is different. Nerka hasn't seen his mother for a year, so he decides to find her. This journey leads him to an expensive neighborhood where unexpected truth is revealed.
A psychology postgraduate student escorts two patients and their nurse to a seaside psychiatric clinic. Along their journey, they break through each other's barriers, delve into the sources of their various traumas, and discover the lasting imprints left on their fragile souls.
Max goes on a date with another guy, Tadas, whom he met online. Max feels uncomfortable and timid so Tadas decides to act on his own initiative. He tries to get to know Max as they embark on a night ride around the city but Max is evasive to talk about himself. Max feels torn between his feelings and Tadas' pressure. Eventually he breaks down and reveals his true identity.
Edgaras and Migle are in a relationship that has Migle have the upper hand financially. Because of this, when Edgaras old friend offers the opportunity to make some money by smuggling cigarettes, Edgaras is tempted. But with a wonderful girlfriend, college around the corner, and so much that can be ruined if he and Viktoras get caught, will Edgaras go through with it?
Luke is an up-and-coming DJ from an affluent New York family with a Lithuanian father and an African-American mother. When Luke hears from an estranged grandmother in Lithuania, he defies his parents and decides to visit this far-away country, flying straight to the capital city Vilnius. He falls in love with the city, a rebellious girl called Marta, and the local music scene - the beatmakers - promoted by an aggressive gay manager, Andy. Luke's grandma's connections get him a deal with the municipality to become the manager of a new nightclub, and he takes up the challenge... but the deal turns out to be poisoned, forcing Luke to rebel in ways he never imagined.
When Marija learns that her unstable boyfriend has disappeared, she takes to the streets in an attempt to find him.
Ieva, 22, comes back to her hometown Vilnius, Lithuania, after four years in Hollywood. During her first twelve hours at home, Ieva sees her mom and friends who project their false expectations on her, picturing Ieva as a successful actress and America as the land of opportunity. Ieva only reveals her doubts about her future to her ex-boyfriend Tadas. As they walk down the streets of Vilnius, Ieva notices how much her city has changed. In order to reconnect with the people and the city Ieva has to accept the fact that nothing stays the same.
Rokas and Inga, a couple of young Lithuanians, volunteer to drive a cargo van of humanitarian aid to Ukraine. They cross the vast snowy lands of the Donbass region, drifting into the lives of those affected by the war.
Radio Free Europe, BBC, and Voice of America can only rarely get through the Iron Curtain and Soviet mufflers to Lithuania, a country torn by a war between the local resistance movement and the Soviet regime that is forced onto Lithuanian people by bayonets of the Russian army. Everybody who tries to resist the Soviet rule is either terrorized or executed or exiled to Siberia. He is one of the local high-school students who witness the local armed resistance to the Soviet occupation and ultimately decide to join it by taking a gun into their hands. He collects documents and all possible kinds of evidence that prove daunting crimes of the Kremlin. He soon becomes a legend among his peers. To girls, he is John Wayne the Hollywood Icon. Guys see him as an insurmountable obstacle and an invincible rival in matters of love.
In late nineteenth-century Russia, Martin Avdeitch is a humble shoemaker whose life has been characterized by grief. Martin must find the courage to look outside himself and trust in the goodness of God. This BYUtv original holiday special is based on Leo Tolstoy's short story, "Martin the Cobbler," and stars John Rhys-Davies.
A blue screen informs that war has begun. What will be needed? Collect the men, find guns, or maybe someone will give them. We need a location, a country where the war would take place. No problem, the Colonel is a real pro, he has caused wars to order, or on orders, on multiple occasions in different countries. Now his followers have grown up and caused a war in his country. He doesn’t want to, but he has to fight. He is old and tired of war. He wants to be at the table with a steaming pot of tasty mutton ribs and stare at an innocent TV screen with the news on, and the dressed-up news reporter announces that the war has begun.
Ornithologist Vilius, trapped by guilt and loss, gets himself into a dangerous smuggling business, unexpectedly, this criminal activity forces him to rethink his life and reconnect with his daughter.
Emilė always lives ten steps ahead: she knows how things should be. That doesn't help her on an awkward date - a poker party where everyone lives in the moment.
Based on a true story, this is the love affair between a Lithuanian genius and the woman and the country he adored. Mikalojus Konstantinas Ciurlionis was born into a Lithuanian peasant family in 1875. Despite his lowly origins he soon revealed himself to be a child prodigy able to both paint and compose music of startling and often frightening intensity. Soon after he was struck down by a mysterious mental illness, which would plague him for the rest of his life. During his short lifetime, Ciurlionis produced over 300 paintings and 300 musical compositions. Supporting him throughout his short and painful life was his beloved wife, Sofija Kymantaite, a journalist and political activist.
Young man is unable to take care of himself, his dog escapes at night. The man wakes up in the morning chained to a radiator. Only a stranger who found his dog can help him escape from an even greater tragedy than chaining.
Lonesome Londoner, a Lithuanian piano student tries to escape back to London from a holiday in his homeland where mistakenly gets in the hands of vicious drug dealer and corrupt Police chef officer. However, the desperate situation changes, once he stumbles upon his ex-girlfriend: a current girlfriend of the very same criminal, who agrees to help him get back.
The eventful life of a humble Polish priest who once decried the pomp of the Catholic Church "a circus" and labeled the Pope a "prisoner of the Vatican" before ascending to the papal throne to usher Catholicism into the 21st century. Born in Poland and forced to carry on following the untimely death of his family, Karol Wojtyla endured both personal hardships and the rape of his homeland by the Third Reich to spread the word of God through the Catholic Church. Later, as Pope John Paul II, Wojtyla was beloved by millions of Catholics worldwide. From the sexual-abuse scandal that shook the American Catholic Church in the later-20th century to the murder of Salvadoran Archbishop Oscar Romero and the near-fatal assassination attempt made on his own life, Pope John Paul II endured to bridge the gap between various faiths until his death resulting from Parkinson's disease in April of 2005.
29-year-old Ilona and her boyfriend have just moved into a new apartment in a block of flats. When the building’s renovation begins soon afterwards and she befriends Oleg, one of the Ukrainian construction workers, her idyllic notions of a fulfilling life as she approaches thirty start to crumble, like the old plaster on the walls.
After his girlfriends' suicide, Gediminas moves back to his single mother living in a block of flats opposite Kaseta's home. In his attempt to make himself oblivious, the young man works as a taxi driver at night. Grief, self-reproach, mother's alcoholism and illness (epilepsy), pestering and cynicism of the clients picked up from night clubs toss Gediminas into an emotional abyss. The painful experience dissolve the tiny bits of his fragile wish to live. He visits a psychologist, a psychiatrist and a self-group for families of suicides, but one day he breaks down. At a crucial moment, the old Kaseta spots Gediminas through his telescope.