DOWN TO EARTH
16mm, 2018
Lithuania, Poland
Director: Kipras Dubauskas
Screenwriter: Eglė Razumaitė
DOP: Vytautas Juozėnas
Second camera operator: Kipras Dubauskas
Sound designer: Jokūbas Čižikas
The film‘s protagonist – Adrian from Warsaw – sets off for Lithuania. The destination of his trip is the village of Dieveniškės, situated in the country‘s appendix‘, where he hopes to find relatives. Adrian is convinced that part of his selfhood has not yet been discovered, and is drawn to this unknown land where the spell that haunts generations of his family will be broken, or his tragic destiny will be fulfilled. His family tree goes back to the 16th century but has one incomplete branch. The newly found relatives and the undiscovered land should help Adrian relieve himself of the conviction that he is cursed by a black crow, the emblem of which he finds in the heraldry of a distant ancestor, the famous poet Jan Kochanowski. The circumstances around Jan Kochanowski‘s demise remain unclear, his grave was robbed and his skull has since been considered missing. The mystery persists to this day and has touched Adrian‘s own family: he lost both parents in motor accidents, his mother when he was seven and his father when he was nineteen. Adrian feels he‘s not like others, he is heavily burdened. He sees no future, as his life is a heap of strange coincidences and foreboding of a tragic end. The video installation includes copies of original documents and props from the film.
