If you happen to haven’t adopted the rise of Lithuanian cinema on the worldwide movie pageant circuit lately, chances are you’ll not know the identify of younger filmmaker and cinematographer Vytautas Katkus – but. However when the Karlovy Fluctuate Worldwide Movie Pageant (KVIFF) not too long ago unveiled that his characteristic directorial debut, The Customer, would world premiere as a part of the Crystal Globe Competitors of its 59th version, the consensus amongst insiders of the impartial and arthouse movie scene was that this amounted to a significant coup for the Czech fest!
“It’s the top of summer season. Danielius, a brand new father in his mid-30s, leaves his household in Norway and travels to his native Lithuania to promote his dad and mom’ flat,” reads a plot description for The Customer. “He tries to reconnect with outdated pals, however the sturdy bond he as soon as had with them is now damaged. As an alternative of dashing again to his younger household to flee the deafening loneliness, he decides to remain, permitting himself to be guided by his solitude.”
The KVIFF web site guarantees a meditation on the human situation. “Time appears to have stopped fully in a world which lights up the fragility of the human soul and pictures of a house that’s not ours,” it says.
The forged is led by Darius Šilėnas, Vismantė Ruzgaitė, and Arvydas Dapšys. The Customer world premieres in KVIFF’s Crystal Globe Competitors on Monday, July 7.
Born in 1991, Katkus has twice gained the award for finest younger director of pictures from the Lithuanian Affiliation of Administrators of Pictures. In 2019, his first brief movie, Collective Gardens, screened within the Cannes Critics’ Week program, adopted by his second brief, Locations, premiering within the 2020 Venice Movie Pageant’s Horizons program. His third brief, Cherries, in 2022, was chosen for the Cannes Movie Pageant.
His cinematography on varied Lithuanian options, together with Marija Kavtaradze’s Summer season Survivors and Johatsu from administrators Lina Luzyte and Nerijus Milerius, has additionally turned heads lately. And on the Locarno Movie Pageant final 12 months, Saulė Bliuvaitė’s Poisonous, on which Katkus was the director of pictures, gained the fest’s Golden Leopard, its high award.
It’s no shock then that Katkus’ debut as a characteristic director, produced by Marija Razgutė and Brigita Beniušytė, was a well-liked ticket heading into Karlovy Fluctuate 2025, which kicked off on Friday and runs by means of July 12. Oh, and did I point out that he served as director of pictures on the film and co-wrote the screenplay along with his good friend Marija Kavtaradze, who was simply talked about a second in the past?
Plus, the editor of the movie is none apart from Lithuanian director Laurynas Bareiša, whose second characteristic, Drowning Dry, was Lithuania’s 2025 Oscar submission in one of the best worldwide characteristic movie class. (The identical was true for his debut characteristic Pilgrims, which gained the Horizons part award for finest movie on the Venice Movie Pageant 2021). Totem Movies is dealing with gross sales for The Customer.
Katkus took time to speak to THR concerning the movie, the significance of solitude, why he likes capturing uncommon angles and utilizing non-traditional framing, and his future plans.
Vytautas Katkus, courtesy of KVIFF
The concept for The Customer got here from points partly explored in his shorts and different inspirations. “There are loads of small particulars, and The Customer is the mixture of those small particulars,” Katkus tells THR. “There are private experiences, loads of experiences from making brief films – issues I used to be desirous about whereas making the brief films, and that I needed to discover extra.”
The preliminary thought Katkus and Kavtaradze had was to put in writing three totally different tales speaking about the identical matter. Quickly, they realized they needed to as a substitute concentrate on one narrative. “We seemed for the chance to create one story in a single universe, and our focus was to speak about loneliness or possibly solitude in a manner that’s not destructive,” Katkus explains. “We needed to indicate that you simply typically have to have it. And it’s a must to perceive that proper now you have to have and revel in it, and tips on how to get pleasure from it. We tried to recollect our private tales and our pals’ tales, so it grew to become a form of mosaic.”
Katkus clearly likes to create an environment and provides his viewers room to return away from the film with their very own classes and interpretations. “I actually need to give the viewer the chance to discover layers and take into consideration their very own emotions,” he tells THR. “I do know what I need to say, however I don’t need it to be fairly easy, however extra open. If 100 individuals watch one film, it’s a very totally different film for every of them.”
Nostalgia is a recurring theme of The Customer, although. “There are loads of nostalgic moments, however I didn’t need to make a really nostalgic film,” the filmmaker highlights. For instance, Danielius is having fun with the top of the summer season season and appears to need to maintain on to it just a bit bit longer. “In his head, he is aware of he can come again, however he nonetheless desires to attempt to discover this sort of pleasure or happiness of earlier occasions.”
Keep in mind how Seinfeld has usually been known as “a present about nothing” as a result of it concentrates on trivial components of on a regular basis life? Katkus’ method is comparable. “There’s a narrative in The Customer, however it’s not a narrative, however a story by emotion,” he explains. “It’s extra like a kaleidoscope.”
Katkus’ digital camera work tends to characteristic uncommon angles and framing. The place does that come from? “As a cinematographer, I actually like to organize as a lot as doable,” he tells THR. “However on the identical time, I actually like to alter issues up a bit or be open to one thing that will occur in entrance of the digital camera. I additionally actually need to give the actors as a lot freedom as doable. I actually don’t prefer to gentle the scene and put down marks and inform them, ‘You need to stand on this mark and look to this aspect’.” Lighting, digital camera and different issues “could also be lovely, however the power from the actors gained’t work,” he explains. “So I actually need to give them freedom, and I then attempt to catch moments with the digital camera and regulate to the actors, not vice versa.”
‘The Customer’
Courtesy of KVIFF
With that method, the manufacturing workforce could not stick with deliberate choreographies and different prepped issues. “However this sort of documentary type or actuality verify in a film actually strikes me.”
Katkus has a busy Karlovy Fluctuate in entrance of him. Along with The Customer in the primary competitors lineup, he additionally served because the director of pictures on Gabrielė Urbonaitė’s Renovation, which is extra of a chamber piece and screens within the Proxima Competitors of the fest.
If you’re a Katkus fan and surprise if he plans to maintain writing and directing, you’ll like the reply. “I’ve some concepts,” he tells THR. He doesn’t have particulars but, however shares: “I’ve one thing that I’m attempting to put in writing proper now. I’m looking for the precise method for the concept. And Marija [Kavtaradze] is concerned.”