For the second year in a row, Kaunas International Film Festival will be
opened by a Lithuanian film – this year it will be the documentary The
Field of Magic by Mindaugas Survila. The premiere of the story about the
people who have been living in the Buda Forest near the former
Karijotiškės landfill for over 20 years will take place in Kaunas on
September 27.

“We are establishing a tradition to begin the programme of the Festival
with a Lithuanian film – last year we screened Eastern Drift by Šarūnas
Bartas, and this year we chose the work of Mindaugas Survila who
represents the young generation of Lithuanian filmmakers. Each year, we
try to introduce both renowned Lithuanian works of cinematography and
promising filmmakers,” said the Festival’s director Ilona Jurkonytė.
Four years in the making, the documentary The Field of Magic is a
scrutiny of the miserable lives, holidays and survival of the residents
of the Buda Forest. By giving voice to those who usually remain unheard,
the filmmaker reveals the difficulties of these actions as well as
shows the ability of the characters to be ironical about the surrounding
world and the fear of losing touch with it.

“My visits to the Buda Forest were very frequent during the filming and
gradually those people began accepting me: I would accompany them to the
landfill, and celebrate Christmas and New Year’s Eve with them. All of a
sudden I could see them in a completely different way as compared to
the picture drawn by the press and the television – they not only do
their share of hard work every day, but also read books, listen to
music, make jokes, fall in love, sing, cry, play cards, do their hair
and are always ready to help each other,” said the author of the film
Mindaugas Survila.

The Field of Magic is the second documentary of the young filmmaker. The
debut titled Meeting the Ospreys about the rare species of birds was
awarded the best Lithuanian nature documentary in 2007 and received the
prize of Petras Abukevičius, maker of the films about nature.

The 5th Kaunas International Film Festival will take place September 27 –
October 9 in Kaunas and Vilnius. The Festival will visit Panevėžys film
theatre “Garsas” on October 10–13 and Nida film theatre “Agila" on
October 13–16.