NOBODY WANTED TO DIE

1947, Lithuania, out in the countryside. Village Soviet council chairman Lokys has been murdered, not the first such case in newly Sovietised Lithuania, perpetrated by enemies of the communist regime: the nationalist Baltic partisan guerrillas of the “Forest Brothers”. When Lokys’ sons vow to get revenge and the former Forest Brother Vaitkus takes the assassinated chairman’s place, the crackling tension in this pro-Soviet/Soviet-critical drama knows no bounds. Star director Žalakevičius weaves an individual fate together with that of a divided population – and a chamber play with a social study at the same time. The result is a Baltic 60s cult Red Western, voted the best film of the year 1966 all across the USSR.