PILGRIMS
(director/writer: Laurynas Bareisa; cinematographer: Narvydas Naujalis; editor: Laurynas Bareisa; cast: Giedrius Kiela (Paulius), Gabija Bargailaite (Indre), Paulius Markevicius (Martynas), Indre Patkauskaite (Ieva), Jolanta Dapkunaite (Jolanta, Paulius’s mother), Zygimante Jakstaite (Waitress), Julius Zalakevicius (Jurgis); Runtime: 91; MPAA Rating: NR; producers: Klementina Remeikaite; Dekanalog; 2021-Lithuania-in Lithuanian with English subtitles)
“A dark psychological character study about the inner-journey of two lost souls trying to find themselves after a personal tragedy.”
Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz
Lithuanian filmmaker Laurynas Bareisa, in his debut feature film, directs this bleak, moralistic, realistic chiller, a dark psychological character study about the inner-journey of the two lost souls trying to find themselves after a personal tragedy. It won the Horizons award at Venice.
Four years after a brutal murder, where justice was already served (the kidnapper killers were caught and sentenced), the victim’s likeable middle-aged wastrel brother Paulius (Giedrius Kiela) and his murdered brother Mateus’ late girlfriend Indre (Gabija Bargailaite) journey from their hometown in Vilnius to the different settings around there small town where the crime happened, trying to emotionally put the pieces of the puzzle together about the murder and settle things in their own mind so they can put it to bed and start living their lives again.
It’s a sparse, slow paced and a depressing film, but well-acted in a nuanced way by the co-stars. The aesthetic visuals give it some vigor, especially that shot of water under a bridge with a car partially submerged in the water. That eerie shot caught my attention.
It played at the Venice Film Festival’s Orizzonti program.
REVIEWED ON 5/4/2023 GRADE: B-