Reminiscences of a Journey to Lithuania

Jonas Mekas fled Lithuania in 1944, spent years in refugee camps, and then settled in New York. In 1971, twenty-seven years later, he went back with his brother Adolfas to Semeniškiai, the village where he was born. He had his Bolex with him. This film is the record of that journey. The narrative has three parts: the first immigrant years in New York, the return to Lithuania, and a closing section in Vienna. Mekas shoots frame by frame, in short flickering bursts; the result is not a flowing film but the shape of remembering itself. Over it comes the director's voice, telling not what we are seeing but what it makes him feel. The most affecting passages are ordinary moments, such as his mother peeling potatoes; Mekas shows that exile does not end when you go back. Who it's for: Viewers who like experimental cinema, diary films, and narratives about exile. Who it's not for: The image is deliberately rough and constantly flickering, which is tiring for the unaccustomed. The narrative offers no story either.