Southern Chronicles (Ignas Miškinis, 2024)

Presented with a recorded introduction by screenwriter Eglė Vertelytė and director Ignas Miškinis

Wheelchair accessible* | English subtitles | Pay-what-you-can tickets (£2–12)

If the ticket or other costs, such as childcare or transport, make this screening unaffordable, please see details of our .

An instant classic, Southern Chronicles united Lithuanian audiences and film critics alike upon its release earlier this year. ‘Southern’ here refers to the southern district of Šiauliai – a small post-industrial city in the north of Lithuania, (in)famous for its local dialect that the source material, a bestselling semi-autobiographical novel by Rimantas Kmita, was written in.

It is in this working-class neighbourhood that we first meet Rimantas (Džiugas Grinys), a teenager whose life revolves around rugby, listening to Eurobeat, and getting involved in small black-market hustles with his pal Mindė (Robertas Petraitis) – the latter being a common occurrence in the ‘wild 90s’ of freshly independent Lithuania, a time marked by economic and social instability.

His life changes when he becomes romantically interested in middle-class Monika (Digna Kulionytė); trying to impress her leads him to discover books and poetry. From first love to first betrayal, this humorous yet heartfelt story follows Rimantas as he grapples with the question of who he is — or wants to be, all while struggling to fit in among Monika’s friends.

From the fashions of the time to an unforgettable soundtrack, the film is infused with nostalgia and feels like it could have been shot in the 1990s: adding to this are snippets of archival footage, masterfully included by Sergei Loznitsa’s main collaborator, editor Danielius Kokanauskis.

Content notes: infrequent moderate violence, swearing, nudity, sexual content, rude humour, infrequent use of homophobic and misogynist language, joke about sexual violence, use of alcohol, vomiting, brief sight of a pixelated severed head

Access notes: flashing/flickering lights

* Please note, The Lower Hall at the Pyramid at Anderston is wheelchair accessible through a ramp at a side entrance. There are 9 steps between the level where it is located and the rest of the venue, meaning that to make way to the accessible toilet or other parts of the building, wheelchair users will need to re-enter via the main entrance. We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause.

Host or Publisher Samizdat Eastern European Film Festival