Aleksandra Metalnikova

The sailor Audrius comes ashore for the last time in his life. The story unfolds through Audrius’ journey and his many encounters over the weekend as autumn turns to winter. He is driven by a severe lack of time. Inadequate actions and reactions make sense when we find out his secret: he’s dying of Leukemia. During his grandmother’s birthday in her countryside village, surrounded by his family and after reassuring his son, he makes a final attempt to find resolve and peace. Farewell is a moving universal tale, uplifting and heart warming, verbally laconic and visually rich. It is a clear-cut story of the human spirit, which is both relentless and immortal.

Based on a true story, this is the love affair between a Lithuanian genius and the woman and the country he adored. Mikalojus Konstantinas Ciurlionis was born into a Lithuanian peasant family in 1875. Despite his lowly origins he soon revealed himself to be a child prodigy able to both paint and compose music of startling and often frightening intensity. Soon after he was struck down by a mysterious mental illness, which would plague him for the rest of his life. During his short lifetime, Ciurlionis produced over 300 paintings and 300 musical compositions. Supporting him throughout his short and painful life was his beloved wife, Sofija Kymantaite, a journalist and political activist.

Radio Free Europe, BBC, and Voice of America can only rarely get through the Iron Curtain and Soviet mufflers to Lithuania, a country torn by a war between the local resistance movement and the Soviet regime that is forced onto Lithuanian people by bayonets of the Russian army. Everybody who tries to resist the Soviet rule is either terrorized or executed or exiled to Siberia. He is one of the local high-school students who witness the local armed resistance to the Soviet occupation and ultimately decide to join it by taking a gun into their hands. He collects documents and all possible kinds of evidence that prove daunting crimes of the Kremlin. He soon becomes a legend among his peers. To girls, he is John Wayne the Hollywood Icon. Guys see him as an insurmountable obstacle and an invincible rival in matters of love.