We Were at Our Own Field

Henrikas Šablevičius’ films of the 1980s and 1990s differ significantly from his early oeuvre – they contain less clear-cut poetics and fewer visual metaphors, and they are longer, capturing the filmmaker’s journey and his silent observations of things before his eyes and camera. Šablevičius, however, continues his interest in family stories, people, and in their inner lives and experiences, while glasnost and Lithuania’s eventual independence from the USSR open up the possibility of examining previously banned subjects: death, post-war resistance, and – as in We Were at Our Own Field – the damage done by the Soviet occupation and the simple longing for one’s family home. (Karlovy Vary International Film Festival)