Welcome, Kaunas is confused and complicated today…

Cities are just like people. Some reach for the future, some dwell on the past. Some are desperate climbers, and some are stubborn nonconformists.

Some are plain extroverts marked by megalomania - they were lucky to ride the crest of the wave, to be in the right place at the right time. Now they are trailing the burden of the past, flaunting their castles and boulevards, and monuments of heroes. They have fallen hostage to their own image and are devoured by pesky tourists coming in swarms like locusts...

Some are shyer and tend to stay away from the spotlights. They do not make much noise and just keep on toiling. They shun publicity like plague, and when a casual tourist stops by, the city miraculously hushes and empties in just a few moments. Only wind slams the doors and flutters the curtains giving away that someone was here not long ago...

Cities are like people. Some know what they want from life and what to do to reach their goals – like travelling salespeople they move consistently in the direction of success. Some are more delicate, idealist or dreamy. Those tend to get seduced and fooled easily. Their stories are often dramatic and unique – they flash for a brief moment, but then the treacherous power and capital leave them without saying goodbye to look for another victim and another, better, place... Meanwhile those betrayed stay and try to get back on their feet.

As a consequence of a fateful coincidence, Kaunas, once a small garrison town is now an example of the Cinderella story and after the occupation of Vilnius, it became the temporary capital. It has been given the temporary conditional title of the Second Best. Can anything be more ironic and dramatic? It is as if you were the temporary First Lady (you can run the show in the halls and bedrooms of the palace until the real First Lady returns from the overseas tour) or a surrogate mother, nurturing a life under your heart which will be taken away from you when the time comes with no scruple and no compromise. Like being an unsolicited favour, or a burden, a mission that cannot be refused, a mission to make you a celebrity, and an eternal hostage of the past.  Like an alien - lonely and unhappy.

Those were the days of bloom and prosperity in the interwar Kaunas – theatres and museums, boudoirs and walkways, horse tramways and gas lanterns... They say that the masters of Venice used to put a little bit of gold into their mirrors thus giving them a mysterious and warm tint. The interwar period, the temporary stage of being a capital and the centre of power also has this special charm. Nobody knows what that mysterious component was. Maybe it was the sense of a special mission and self-esteem…

Cities, like people, are all different. Some are simple, some dramatic. Kaunas is dramatic and complicated – a silent hysteric, a shy rebel, plebeian and treacherous. Unbelievably early in the night it falls silent. Laisvės Avenue, the lindens, emptiness, anticipation... Lindens with neatly shaped crowns obey the order dictated culture and the city. Infinite longing. Fog rising from two rivers. The city is slowly enshrouded by night.

When planes land above the confluence of two rivers, travellers can see the mysterious triangle of Confluence Park below, the lines of avenues and boulevards, a dark spot of the urban landscape and reputation – the legendary mafia neighbourhood, and apartment complexes expectantly glittering on the outskirts of the city. The pilot announces local time and temperature...

Rasa Baločkaitė

This text has been written specially for Kaunas International Film Festival and published in the catalogue of the festival.