Laurynas Bareiša’s film Piligrimai (Pilgrims), which won a historic Orizzonti Award for the Best Film at the Venice Film Festival last year, will soon be available on the HBO TV platform. Millions of Central and Eastern Europeans will be able to watch the Lithuanian film on HBO from August.
‘We are very happy that more people will see the film as the TV channel HBO has taken interest in Piligirmai (Pilgrims). This is another huge recognition and encouragement for us to keep working. Besides, Dekanolog, the film’s distribution company, is going to screen the film in North American cinemas from next year’, said K. Remeikaitė, producer of the film.
The psychological drama was presented this year in a custom-built cinema in Karmėlava (Lithuania). The film also took part in the Vilnius Film Festival Kino pavasaris competition in which Giedrius Kiela, actor of Pilgrimai (Pilgrims), won the best actor award. In April, the film was awarded the FIPRESCI Award by the International Federation of Film Critics at the German goEast festival. As the producer K. Remeikaitė said, the jury members emphasized the simple manner of telling a story about violence without depicting it: ’This feature was singled out as a great strength of Pilgrims.’
A generation of young artists has grown up in Lithuania, making Lithuania famous all over the world. In 2019 at the Venice Biennale, the prestigious Golden Lion for Best National Participation was awarded to the opera-performance Sun and Sea (Marina) by Rugilė Barzdžiukaitė, Vaiva Grainytė, and Lina Lapelytė.
