Chief Financial Officer of Vilnius Film Festival Odeta Morkūnienė

April (dir. Dea Kulumbegashvili)

COMPETITION
Nina secretly performs abortions for women. Although abortion is not illegal in Georgia, the deeply patriarchal and highly religious society stigmatises a woman’s right to choose, making the procedure a source of immense shame. Director Dea Kulumbegashvili masterfully immerses the audience in raw realism, while unsettling them with mystical elements. The film is full of striking contrasts—an extended abortion scene, a real childbirth, a C-section—all juxtaposed against breathtaking mountain landscapes, fields of red poppies, and the gentle play of wind through pink curtains. Dark, slow, and visually arresting, the film mirrors the weight of societal shame, yet it compels us to confront the urgent conversation on women’s reproductive rights and health.

Armand (dir. Halfdan Ullmann Tøndel)

COMPETITION
A portrait film. Two hours of watching Renate Reinsve’s performance—and it never drags. The setting is an empty elementary school after hours. Elisabeth, a local celebrity and mother of first-grader Armand, is called in for a meeting where her son is accused of sexually assaulting a classmate. She faces an impossible task: enduring the accusations, remaining composed, holding on to her reputation as a good mother, and defending her child all at once. The tension escalates. The conversation includes anxious school staff, wary of worsening the situation, and the classmate’s parents, ready to call the police at any moment. A courtroom drama—but set in a school auditorium.

Bird (dir. Andrea Arnold)

MASTERS
A poignant story about twelve-year-old Bailey. Her family consists of a fearless, chaotic, and extravagant father and a mother who lives with an abusive partner. Her home is a free-spirited, open, graffiti-covered squat, constantly buzzing with visitors—including one who keeps a hallucinogenic frog as a pet. Her world is shaped by teenage gangs. Her fascination? A strange, mysterious drifter—Bird, a nomadic, untamed soul searching for something from the past. A wild, unpredictable, tender, and deeply empathetic tale about society’s outcasts. Not everything that is different is dangerous. Sometimes, it’s simply poetry in everyday life.

Witches (dir. Elizabeth Sankey)

PANORAMA
“If you had postpartum depression or psychosis a few hundred years ago, you would have been burned as a witch,” says documentary filmmaker Elizabeth Sankey. Her film weaves together raw, lived experiences of women’s mental health—especially after childbirth—with clips from classic films depicting witches. As the collage unfolds on screen, the connection between the stigma surrounding women’s health and the figure of the witch becomes strikingly clear. Come if you, too, are a witch.

THE CONSEQUENCES OF LOVE (dir. Paolo Sorrentino)

30 SPRINGS
A crime-romance thriller that is a must-watch for Paolo Sorrentino fans—only his second feature film, yet already a masterpiece. A solitary businessman has been living in a Swiss hotel for years. No one knows what this stylish, enigmatic man does, and he guards his secrets well. Until he falls for a barmaid. How far can one go for love? With an unpredictable plot, a mesmerizing soundtrack, outstanding performances, and, of course, love at its core, this film is a cinematic gem. I’m thrilled that, after twenty years, it’s returning to Vilnius Film Festival.