The film "Seneca's Day" by K. Vildžiūnas receives the Baltic Assembly Prize coinciding with its theatrical release

At the end of October, Kristijonas Vildžiūnas, director of the film "Seneca's Day", will be awarded the Baltic Assembly Prize for this work. The new film invites young people to get to know their parents' generation, which matured during the years of historic change accompanied with youthful revolts, and the elder people – to plunge into the atmosphere of their youth, to remember their dreams. Baltic Assembly Prizes are awarded since 1993 for outstanding achievements in literature, the arts and science, and they seek to promote the development of these areas in the Baltic States, to recognize the most significant achievements in the above areas, spread them in other countries.

For the first time, the Baltic Assembly Prize for artistic achievements was given to a film director. "Seneca's Day" is the fourth feature narrative film by K. Vildžiūnas, and the first joint production of the three countries, Lithuania (Studio Uljana Kim), Latvia (Locomotive Productions) and Estonia (Amrion OÜ). Former works by director Kristijonas Vildžiūnas – "The Lease", "You Am I", "Back to Your Arms", – are well known to the fans of auteur cinema. These films were shown in dozens of festivals in the world, including the most famous ones – the international Venice, Cannes festivals. K. Vildžiūnas was submitted for the Baltic Assembly Prize for the "Seneca's Day" by Estonia.

This year, the Baltic Assembly Prize for literature was given to the writer Sigitas Parulskis, and Science Prize – to Maija Dambrova from Latvia. The prizes to the three winners will be awarded on 27 October in Riga.

Audience can now see "Seneca's Day" in all cinemas of Lithuania. Action of the film unfolds on the eve of restoration of independence of Lithuania, and in the present days. In the last year of the Soviet period, several eighteen-year-olds set up a Seneca Society, whose members have the motto "Live every day as if it were the last". A love triangle dismantles the association of young maximalists at the time when the Baltic nations are experiencing the sense of community in the Baltic Way. Twenty-five years later, the protagonist of the film Simonas, a successful man, is remembering himself more and more often, how he renounced deep feelings once in his youth. The bitterness of disappointment with himself pushes the protagonist to remember the moments of his life that restore the sense of self-esteem, reconcile him with the reality.

According to the director K. Vildžiūnas, "Seneca's Day" is a film about the ability to overcome the inertia, about the efforts to see the hope in everyday life – despite grievances, losses, fears. This and the previous film "You Am I" make a diptych; they are both about the faith in personal, inner change of a human being."

Cast of the film includes actors Dainius Gavenonis, Elžbieta Latėnaitė, Marijus Mažūnas, Ina Marija Bartaitė, Vesta Grabštaitė, Arūnas Storpirštis, Arūnas Sakalauskas, Emilija Latėnaitė, Ričardas Vitkaitis, Renata Vėberytė Loman, Larisa Kalpokaitė, and others.

Specially for the recordings of the film soundtrack, Šiaurės kryptis, the well-known rock band of Perestroika era, one of the leaders of which was Kristijonas Vildžiūnas, was reunited. In the "Seneca's Day" we hear unreleased, little-known songs by Šiaurės kryptis, written in 1986-1989. In the film we can also hear the piece "Pari intervallo" by the famous contemporary music composer Arvo Pärt.

Production of "Seneca's Day" was partially funded by the Lithuanian Film Centre under the Ministry of Culture, the National Cinema Centres in Latvia and Estonia, the European Union's Media Programme, and Eurimages - European Cinema Support Fund.