A few observations about The Summer of Sangailė 3
In brief: The famous film "The Summer of Sangailė" from the director Alantė Kavaitė finally reached Lithuanian cinemas and a wider audience, on the 21st of August. The film is not without flaws, but it is worth seeing, not just because, as it is said, to support national film.
The director of the film is often, sort of "incriminated" of using the currently relevant homosexuality topic - a frequent topic in film, which might have led to film’s success. It is surprising that there are still people thinking like that, because there were several Lithuanian films that touched upon the topic of homosexuality (for example, Saulius Drunga "Anarchy in Žirmūnai", 2010, or Romas Zabarauskas "Pornomelodrama", 2011). Therefore it cannot be said that director has taken a bold step in choosing this topic, because it has been done before and the film's key to success lies, perhaps, elsewhere. One of them might be a suggestive acting of the main characters.
Often the articles on this film in the press emphasize that it is about the relationship of two girls: Austė (Aistė Diržiūtė) and Sangailė (Julija Steponaitytė). Meanwhile, the film is dominated by (this may not be a big minus) Sangailė character. Her feelings - a problem of self-injury and overcoming a fear of heights - are displayed and analyzed. Meanwhile, the character of Austė is never fully revealed. If anyone is bothered with other poster-like or not fully developed characters that are near the girls, I would recommend watching the film again focusing on one of the few short dialogs between Sangailė and her mother, where they talk about her feelings while on the stage... These few sentences are a perfect illustration of what the director probably wanted to say about the (none) existent relationship between parents and the daughter. True, it is worth mentioning a one more group of characters - it is a company of girl friends that demonstrate very persuasively how teenagers spend their free time.
As for the other significant elements of the film, the choice of music in certain parts seems doubtful, but what fascinates is the work of the camera man Dominique Colin and artist Ramūnas Rastauskas. The moments of silence in the film are often filled with nature images recorded from up high that might encourage lovers of photography to buy a drone.
