MIRACLE

A collective pig farm in rural Lithuania is coming apart at the seams. While director Irena attempts to maintain the farm, home to the former record-breaking sow “Curly Tail”, the staff and stakeholders have long since given up on the place, as has Irena’s husband. Then US-American Bernardas bursts into the midst of this post-Soviet early 90s hopelessness with his red Cadillac and his plan to buy the run-down farm. Looking to get back to his Lithuanian roots he delivers big, strangely vacuous speeches and finds no lack of willing acolytes in the process. Chewing gum accent, unaccustomed manliness and the effectively deployed fable of the three little pigs instead of endless columns of boring figures all make their impact and before you can say “dealmaker” everyone is on board with his modernisation scheme. The fact that Bernardas, this saviour from across the pond, also bears a resemblance to Donald Trump lends the film additional comic weight.
MIRACLE features a refreshing screenplay and frequently possesses a stylistic proximity to the cinema of Aki Kaurismäki, with images that bask in nothing but subdued turquoise or contrasting red and white. Wonderful performances abound, including a tongue-in-cheek nod to Poland in the form of a village priest, played by star actor Daniel Olbrychski. Eglė Vertelytė has really pulled off a tiny miracle with her feature film debut.