Ghetto
| 100 min. – Film in progess , Feature film – 100 min., color, 35mm – 2005 , Studija “Seansas” Dragoncine New Transit |
Screenplay : Joshua Sobolis
Cinematographer : Andreas Hofer
Music : Anatolijus Šenderovas
Production designer : Jurijus Grigorovičius
Costume designer : Eglė Kvintienė
Editing director : Judith Futar - Klahn
Producer : Audrius Juzėnas, Gintautas Dailyda, Kęstutis Petrulis
Cast : Alvydas Šlepikas, Eimutis Kvosčiauskas, Adrija Čepaitė, Margarita Žiemelytė, Vytautas Šapranauskas, Andrius Žebrauskas, Erika Marozsan, Heino Ferch, Sebastian Hulk, Vytautas Grigolis
This feature film is based on true events of the years of war. The action is set in Vilnius ghetto (1942–1943) during the years of Nazi occupation.
The film tells a fatal and extremely tragic story of passionate love and terrible hatred that started between a Nazi officer Kitel, former actor and jazz musician, and a star of the musical world, a Jewish girl Chaja. Due to this fatal love a theatre is founded in the Vilnius ghetto.
The inhabitants of the ghetto meet the opening of theatre with discontent and opposition. They feel humiliated by the blasphemous idea that here, where the mass killings of the Jewish population of Vilnius took place, that is in a cemetery, a theatre will exist.
However, the head of the Jewish police Jakob Gens tries to realize this idea despite protests and opposition. He is convinced that theatre is a great means to “normalize” the life of condemned people in the ghetto.
However, the world of art has its own laws. The first performance of the theatre is very successful. The theatre soon becomes very popular in the ghetto and provokes the audience. Finally, it escapes the founders’ control and censorship. The theatre of Vilnius ghetto does not serve their limited goals and needs and turns into a place where the humanist spirit, nobleness and eternal values triumph. The theatre in Vilnius ghetto becomes a dangerous bomb of delayed action. Germans soon liquidate the whole troupe of the ghetto theatre.
