Sunday 8th July 2018
Aldona Bendoriute, Monika Biciunaite, Daumantas Ciunis, Arnas Danusas, Sarunas Datenis and Skomantas Duoplys
Norbertas Pranckus, Jacqueline Quella and Justina Ragauskaite
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 regime 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. He is destined to take part at the historical March to the West and inform the US Congress of the Baltic States' struggle for freedom, which subsequently leads to the Welles Declaration. The latter drives a wedge between two former allies, the USA and the USSR, and keeps the hope for independence alive in the three Baltic States under the Soviet occupation during the long years of the entire Cold War. "Owl Mountain" is a full lenght feature historical drama about the political and social issues of Lithuania in 1947-1952 m. which reflect most of Soviet occupied countries' life. It's about the journey of committed partisans and the message they carry out, about devotion and bloody fight, internecine relationships, love and hate, postwar generation, fear to die but not strong enough to defeat the aim for independence. That's the story of hope which is symbolized by the Voice of America. Story of reckless risk, survival, unity, and here the Jewish are stated as the best example of encouragement. Story of friendship, also with the different cultures but same destinies, such as hiding Germans. That's the story about sacrifice for freedom, for national, social and finally simple human happiness.