Skip to content
29 Jan – 8 Feb 2026
  • Home
  • Films
  • From Unfinished Tales of Jerusalem

From Unfinished Tales of Jerusalem

Arunas Matelis | Lithuania | 1996 | 30' | | IFFR 1996

Meticulously composed documentary film about an old heathen ritual that is kept alive in a few places in Lithuania. The film is set in a village in the Semogitia region. The ritual takes place on the evening of Easter and continues deep into the night. The inhabitants of the village dress up in colourful costumes as ‘artists’, ‘soldiers’ or ‘Jews’. They congregate in the church where the ‘soldiers’ guard a divine statue and the ‘Jews’ try to steal it. This miraculous mixture of Christian symbolism and old heathen customs becomes increasingly burlesque as the alcohol transforms the religious feast into an exotic one. The village drowns in mud and drink. After the party the village gets back to normal.

Film details

Country of production
Lithuania
Year
1996
Festival edition
IFFR 1996
Length
30"
Medium/Format
35mm

You may also like this