OSCARS 2017 Lithuania
Seneca’s Day to be the Lithuanian Oscar candidate
by Laurence Boyce
- The film by Kristijonas Vildžiūnas is to be put forward for consideration in the Best Foreign-language Film category
The Lithuanian entry for the 2017 Academy Awards will be Kristijonas Vildžiūnas’ Seneca’s Day [+see also:
trailer
film profile]. The film is set in the Lithuanian capital of Vilnius. It is 1989 and the last year of Soviet rule. A group of teenage friends resolve to live each day as if it were their last, in a group they call “Seneca’s Fellowship”, named after the famous Roman philosopher. But when a love triangle breaks them up, it seems that their idealism is misplaced. A quarter of a century later, with disillusionment haunting his apparently successful life, one member of the group feels he has betrayed his youthful ideals and delves into a Pandora's box of memories.
This is the third film directed by Vildžiūnas. His Back to Your Arms was also Lithuania's submission for the Best Foreign-language Film Oscar in 2011. The film was produced by Studio Uljana Kim (Lithuania), Amrion (Estonia) and Locomotive Productions (Latvia); it is due to be released domestically on 30 September.
