email print share on Facebook share on Twitter share on LinkedIn share on reddit pin on Pinterest

HOT DOCS 2023

Elena Kairytė • Director of Roberta

“Roberta was looking for herself and it resonated with me. I was also looking for something”

by 

- The Lithuanian director focuses on the girl at a crossroads who never lost hope

Elena Kairytė • Director of Roberta

Roberta [+see also:
film review
interview: Elena Kairytė
film profile
]
is always mixing things up: she is changing her hair, her job, and hoping for a better future. In this Lithuanian doc, heading to the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival, following an early bow at Meeting Point Vilnius, Elena Kairytė doesn’t judge her at all. After all, growing up is all about feeling lost.

Cineuropa: Roberta seems so confused at the beginning, even resigned. What made you choose her as a subject?
Elena Kairytė:
I think it was all about intuition. Also, I really wanted to make a film by myself. In the past, I would work with other cinematographers. I remember walking around Vilnius, thinking: “I have a camera. Now I need a protagonist.” 

(The article continues below - Commercial information)

I met Roberta maybe 10 years ago. I was a casting director on another film, looking for unusual people and interesting faces. Later, we would run into each other in the most unexpected places, and every time, she was in a different mood, she had a different job. It was clear to me just how lost she was. She was looking for herself and it resonated with me. I was also looking for something. 

I have been seeing many films about young women looking for something — IDFA winner Apolonia, Apolonia [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Lea Glob
film profile
]
comes to mind. I love it, because it proves that we don’t have to repeat the same patterns anymore. There is more.
Roberta certainly doesn’t conform and I really like that about her. She has her own ideas about how she should live, and these ideas keep changing. She is changing, too. When you are young, you are thinking about who you are and where you are going. But it’s all very dynamic, and I wanted to show it. 

How long were you shooting? You can only tell that some time has passed because, as you said, she keeps changing her hair.
Later, with my editor Darius Šilėnas, we realised that was a blessing [laughter]. 

I was filming her for more than 4 years and it always felt like a conversation. Whenever I tried to ask her direct questions, things would get awkward. When Roberta talks in the film, it’s because she wanted to — I just tried to always stay close to capture these moments. We had a special screening in Lithuania and someone asked her how it felt to be filmed. She replied: “I was just talking to myself.” For her, the camera has turned into a mirror. 

You don’t explain much — all we know is what she decides to share. Would you say that this is also your style?
That’s true, I never want to explain things. Once you start doing it, it’s very easy to then just tell your viewers what you think about your characters. It was more important to get a sense of that period in her life. Also, I always believe that if a story resonates with you in some way, you will get it. After that first screening, when I was asking people about what they saw, they weren’t even talking about Roberta. They were talking about themselves. 

When you focus so deeply on just one person, does it make things harder? Do they want more control?
She was the best protagonist I have ever had. I like strong personalities, but working with them can be hard. Not with Roberta — she understood what we were doing. “We are making a film about a normal person who is struggling.” She said that to her own friends! She was doing her thing and I was doing mine. 

When she finally saw the film, it was a beautiful moment. Before, I asked if she was nervous. I know I was. She likes to act tough, so she said: “I don’t care. Whatever.” Still, I could see her entire body relax as the screening went on. After it finished, she was emotional, but she just said: “I liked it.” That was it [laughter].  

In the film, she seems quite upbeat about her problems, about financial struggles. “Welcome to hobo life,” she says at one point. But things do get easier, which makes me wonder: would you like to continue filming her?
I think it was a beautiful experience for both of us and a very specific time in our lives. Now, we are heading somewhere else. I don’t know what I will say after a few years, but for now, it’s finished. I really feel that. 

It was important to bring hope into this story, this belief that everything will be just fine. I mean, it’s Roberta — you can’t pity her! She is just trying to do her best. When I am making films, I am always thinking about that last scene in [Federico Fellini’s] Nights of Cabiria. She has been through so much, she is walking among these musicians, crying. And then she smiles. When we showed the film, one girl — who apparently came to the cinema by accident — told me: “All my life I’ve felt like a loser. Now, I don’t feel like a loser anymore.” Cabiria’s smile is so important to me. Not just in films, but also in real life. 

(The article continues below - Commercial information)

Did you enjoy reading this article? Please subscribe to our newsletter to receive more stories like this directly in your inbox.

See also

Privacy Policy