Wendy Ide 

Nova Lituania review – we’ve got to get out of here

A Lithuanian geographer plans to escape the second world war by creating an alternative colony overseas
  
  

Nova Lituania.
Nova Lituania. Photograph: © Square Eyes

This assured feature debut from writer and director Karolis Kaupinis takes a wry look at a little-known event in late-1930s Lithuania. Anticipating the coming war, a geographer proposes the setting up of an alternative colony overseas – a backup Lithuania – to be used in the event of an invasion. This is the jumping-off point for a densely detailed, slyly comic collision between international politics and absurdity.

It’s not immediately accessible film-making, but Kaupinis uses the medium smartly: everything from the boxed-in aspect ratio to the geographer’s increasingly oppressive living arrangements nods to Lithuania’s potential plight.

Watch a trailer for Nova Lituania
 

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