Lithuanian director Laurynas Bareiša chatted with Cineuropa after his new feature project, Liberations, which received the Eurimages Co-Production Development Award, endowed with a €20,000 cash prize, at this year’s Berlinale Co-Production Market (read news). Produced by Klementina Remeikaitė for afterschool production, the film follows on from Bareiša’s previous features, Pilgrims [+lee también:
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entrevista: Laurynas Bareisa
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ficha de la película], awarded with Best Direction and Best Performances in Locarno’s competition. Conceived of as a survival story unfolding between Lithuania, Latvia and Scandinavia, the project is currently moving into the preparation phase, with casting and location scouting taking priority.

Cineuropa: Can you tell us more about Liberations and its core narrative?
Laurynas Bareiša: Liberations is about a family trying to escape an unseen threat. It’s essentially a survival film. They go from Lithuania to Latvia, then across the Baltic Sea, and then, in the end, they return. Unfortunately, not everyone makes it back.

What stage of development are you currently at, and what are your immediate priorities?
Even though we now have a finished script, it’s still based on fictional geography. Usually, I adapt the text during the prep phase and while shooting the film, in line with the real locations we end up choosing and other changing circumstances. But this project is looking a little too complicated for that and, given that we’re planning on starting prepping this year, there will be enough time to add more concrete details to the screenplay. We’ll still leave ourselves room to adapt, as we plan to shoot the film in chronological order. We’re also starting to look for actors. Given that one of the main characters isn’t Lithuanian, we’re looking into an international casting process. We don’t have experience in this field, so we hope to find reliable partners to guide us.

How would you describe your experience at this year’s Berlinale Co-Production Market?
Overall, it was productive. We had a lot of meetings, and we now have ample contacts to follow up with. It’s hard to say which ones will work out, but we certainly have options. Personally, I was worried I might be rusty at pitching, but the atmosphere of the event was very professional and supportive, so it wasn’t hard to get into the rhythm of it. We also took the opportunity to present some other projects that we’ve got at various stages of development, when it made sense to, and there were some surprising matches that we really hope will work out. We operate as a filmmaking collective within afterschool production, and this kind of one-on-one format is very good for making contacts who might be useful for the company as a whole.

How do you plan to utilise the Eurimages Co-Production Development Award as you move forward?
As this year will be mostly dedicated to casting and location scouting, I was hoping to organise a trip to follow the route taken in the film. So maybe we’ll use the money for that. I guess the funds will also come in handy for casting abroad. Honestly, we were very surprised to win the prize and we’re yet to sit down with Klementina to properly discuss how we’re going to use it.

Do you already have a timeframe in mind for completion?
We’re currently scheduled to start shooting in summer 2027. Principal photography will be split into three stages. Most of the film, around two thirds of it, will be shot in the summer. Then, around a quarter of the film will be shot in the autumn-winter period, somewhere in Scandinavia. We’re still looking for a Nordic partner, so we’re not yet sure which country it will be. The final part will be shot in Lithuania again, in spring 2028. The film has some CGI elements to it, so I’m not sure whether that will complicate the post-production process. But realistically, we should have the film ready for the start of winter 2028.