NOVA LITUANIA

It’s 1938 and Lithuania’s thirty years of independence are threatened by impending war. While the president seeks to shift responsibility for the country to Prime Minister Jonas Servus for health reasons, quirky geography professor Feliksas Gruodis devotes himself to the bizarre project of creating a backup Lithuania intended to protect its citizens from dangerous situations by offering the possibility to resettle the whole population to an uninhabited swathe of land. Alas, the prime minister rejects the anxious but determined geographer’s pitch. To top it all off, the mad scientist’s marriage is also plagued by mundane but seemingly unresolvable communication issues. When the first troops invade and the prime minister suffers a symbolic heart attack, the statesman begins to reconsider the peculiar backup plan. Will Feliksas perhaps really be able to save Lithuania and his marriage? In seemingly idyllic black-and-white shots, Karolis Kaupinis creates an equally melodious and grotesque drama in his feature film debut, one that imagines its characters as strong, emotional, intelligent and – at the same time – nostalgic, dreamy and insecure human beings.