Award Winning Documentary by Arunas Matelis Comes to Cervantes Institute in Tokyo
Updated 2010-04-23
On the occassion of the Spanish EU Presidency, Cervantes Institute in Tokyo opens its doors for the cultural presentations by the EU member states. Every Saturday, March through June, the program of “Invited EU Films” will be shown, including a film by the Lithuanian director Arunas Matelis “Before Flying Back to the Earth” which will be screened on April 24, 5 PM and May 8, 3:30 PM.
Admission free, no reservation required. For more information, please check Instituto Cervantes di Tokio www.cervantes.jp“Before Flying Back to the Earth” is a sensitive and beautiful documentary portrait of children receiving treatment for leukemia at Vilnius Pediatrics hospital. Without intrusive explanatory narration, director Matelis immerses the viewer in the heightened experience of the fight against cancer. Through his vérité approach, Matelis trusts the audience to make its own emotional connections to the material. When the children or their parents do speak directly to the camera, they have something to say. Intercut with the footage are black-and-white stills chronicling difficult times as well as kid-stuff silliness, all of it evidence of the way acute illness can intensify our appreciation of life. (The Hollywood Reporter.com)
In Japan, the winner of many prestigious international awards, including the Directors Guild of America Award 2006, “Before Flying Back to the Earth” was broadcasted by NHK and screened at “EU Film Days”. Inspired by the film, the Japan-Lithuania Friendship Association held charity events to support children cancer treatment institutions in Lithuania in 2007.
“Before Flying Back to the Earth”, 52 min., 2005, Studio ‘Nominum” Lithuania, Germany. In Lithuanian with Japanese subtitles. For more information about the film: www.nominum.com
