Special programme "Old Docs Revisited"  

This film is Robertas Verba’s directorial debut. According to film critic Laimonas Tapinas, “it rarely happens that the first film is successful [...] and it is even more unusual a phenomenon that the first film changes trends in cinematography. Verba’s first film “The Old Man and the Land” had exactly that kind of influence.” As film critic Živilė Pipinytė puts it, “this film was the “ice-breaker” who broke through the ice of Soviet ideology to form the peculiar stylistics of Lithuanian documentary film.” The hero of the film is the bright Lithuanian villager Anupras whose archaic worldview becomes a symbol of the ethno-cultural Lithuanian identity that was often opposed to the identity constructed by the Soviet propaganda.

Awards

Baltic Film Festival “The Great Amber”, Vilnius (1966) – Diploma for Directing
2nd All-State Film Festival, Kiev (1966) – Diploma for Directing

Robertas Verba

The pioneer of Lithuanian poetic documentary, chronicler of Lithuanian national revival, director, cameraman and a scriptwriter Robertas Verba (1932-1994) made over thirty documentaries, filmed hundreds of videotapes for a historical chronicle of that period. He graduated from All-Union State Institute of Cinematography as a cameraman. His 1965-1970 films, according to film critic Živilė Pipinytė, “shaped the genetic fund of Lithuanian documentary film – its stylistic features, the taste for metaphoric image as well as minimalism of a means of expression.”

Selected Filmography

Far from Homeland / Toli nuo tėvynės (1983)
Wings of Lituanica / Lituanikos sparnai (1983)
We Are Made of Wood and Songs / Mes iš medžio ir dainų (1979)
Love Bloomed on Sunday / Meilė pražydo sekmadienį (1976)
Last Summer of a Farmstead / Paskutinė vienkiemio vasara (1971)
To the Feast / Šventėn (1970)
Čiūtyta rūta (1968)
Vincas Svirskis (1967)