25/10/2023 - The picture, starring Kristina Virsilaite and the director himself, is set to hit screens in February 2024 and follows a Lithuanian couple who go on a hiking trip in Northern Lapland

l-r: Vytautas Tinteris and Kristina Virsilaite on the set of Eternal Voyage (© Vytenis Jankauskas)

Vytautas Tinteris is putting the finishing touches to his third feature, Eternal Voyage. Some of his latest works include the documentary Fishing Frequencies, which was shown at Scanorama, among other festivals, and the drama Let Me Dream, released in cinemas across Lithuania and screened by several European festivals, such as Sarajevo’s Youth Film Festival and North Macedonia’s Giffoni Film Festival. In recent times, he has been working as an editor for the immersive audiovisual installations of visual artist Emilija Skarnulyte exhibited at Tate Modern, Tokyo’s Mori Museum and Lithuania’s National Gallery of Art.

(The article continues below - Commercial information)

Tinteris’s new endeavour “teeters between documentary and fiction”, with “a strong emphasis on the immersive power of sounds wherein nature plays a crucial role while surrounding the main characters”.

The plot zooms in on a Lithuanian couple, Ruta and Benas, who go on a hiking trip in Northern Lapland, Finland. Disconnected from the rest of the world, they come to know much later that war has broken out in the rest of Europe, so they are faced with a harsh choice – whether to come back to their burning hometown of Vilnius in Lithuania, or try to stay away longer and adapt to living in an open wilderness in Lapland. Benas is portrayed by the helmer himself, whilst Ruta is played by Kristina Virsilaite.

Speaking about what prompted him to embark on this project, Tinteris told Cineuropa: “We live in difficult times. The clash of civilisations happening now, the war in Ukraine, the war in Israel... I thought humanity had learned its lessons after the two World Wars, but it seems it hasn’t. And how do young and innocent people react to it? How about their dreams, their future plans? Does war destroy their destinies completely? It's a poetic film about the modern state of the world, where the last people on the planet – Adam and Eve – are trying to re-inhabit the world and create their own Garden of Eden, but this time in the cold, harsh climate of Lapland.

“In the 20th century, a lot of people from the Baltic countries were deported to labour and prison camps in Siberia. Now it seems history is repeating itself, and we see the same deportations in Ukraine organised by Russia. In my film, the main characters choose voluntary deportation – no one forced them to come to the cold surroundings of Lapland; they came there by accident because they just like nature and hiking. But now, they need to choose whether to come back or stay.

“As a young person, I feel sad for most of the young people affected by war because they are so full of energy, so full of future plans, and war completely changes their path. So many destinies are doomed, so many lives are ruined, and we still haven’t put a stop to it,” he added.

The technical crew includes DoP Vytenis Jankauskas, editor Isaac Cohen and composer Johan M Guerrero.

Eternal Voyage is being produced by Rokas Baniūnas for Estonian outfit Screen Saviors. The feature will hit Lithuanian, Estonian and Latvian cinemas on 24 February 2024.