“Gabrielė Urbonaitė is One of the Young Lithuanian filmmakers who have been the facting the Festival Circuit by Storm in Recent Years. SO FAR, SHE MOSTLY MADE A NAME FOR HERSElf as an Editor, for Example on Austeja Urbaite’s Remember to Blink. But this Summer, she was been presenting to festival audiences her feature Directorial”, – WRITE: www.hollywoodReporter.com
It World Premiered in the Proxima Competition Lineup of the 59th Edition of the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival and Just Screned at the 31st Edition of The Sarajevo Film Film Festival.
The Movie, Starring Zygimante Elena Jakstaitė (European Shooting Star 2021), Sarūnas Zenkevicius (European Shooting Star 2025) and UP-AMING UKRAINIAN Talent RomanUnder the Volcano by Damian Kocur, 2024), Explores the Pressures on a Young Woman to be settled and Successful by the Time She Turns 30. Vytautas katkus.
Renovation Was Produced by Uljana Kim for Lithuania’s Studio Uljana Kim, Latvia’s Mima Films and Belgium’s Harald House. It is Support by the Lithuanian Film Center, the National Film Centre of Latvia and LRT.
Ilona, A perfectionist 29-year-OLD, Lives in Present-Day Vilnius, Lithuania. “AT this turning point in her life, she begins to quest how’s she trly wants to live,“ Notes a synopsis for Renovation. “She Moves Into A Seemingly Perfect with Her Boyfriend Matas, with Whom Things Are Getting Serious.” But as the building’s renovation begins, Ilona’s inner doubts Also Start to Surface. “She Strikes Up an UnEXPECTED FRIENDSIP WITH Oleg, A Ukrainian Construction Worker. After Spotaneously Telling Him She’s A Poet, She Actually Begins to Writer Poetry.”
Things threaten to get out of Control. “Their Connection Deepens her uncertainty,“ Highlights the synopsis. “Does she realy want to settle Down and Start A Family?”
On the Sidelines of the Sarajevo Festival, Urbonaitė, Who Earned Her Bfa In Film from Emerson College and Her MFA in Screenwriting/Directing from Columbia University Thr About Real-Life Inspirats for RenovationHer Cinematic Voice, The Impact of Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine on Lithuanians and What She Hepes to D Next.
Can You Tell Me A Bit About the Inspirations for Your Film?
Yeah, It Came from My Own Experience, But Also That of My Friends. We All Kind of Felt The Same Way About Approaching 30. I was Living in the States WHEN I STARTED WRITING, AND ITTICED A DIFFERENCE Between My Friends at Home And My W W W W W W. I THINK THAT The Pressure That We Associate with Turning 30, We Experience That Even Earlier. And I Think It’s Cultural, It Comes from Our Paarents and Their Generation and the Way they Were Raissed. The Actress Zygimante, Who Plays Ilona, Also Added Some of Her Experience.
WHY DID YOU MOVE BACK TO Lithuania?
I Always Planned to Move Back. The Pandemic Kind of Accelerated the Process A Little Bit. But I Always Wanted to Tell Stories in Lithuania. I ALSO Kept Making Short Films in Lithuania While and Was Studying in the Us It Just Feels Really Important to Me to Be a Part of this Growing Film Industry and Lithuanian. They are or can be universal, but, for me, it’s Important to somehow transmit this specific cultural experience.
The War in Ukraine is a constant threat, MOSTLY IN THE BACKGROUND, IN IN Renovation. Can You Share A Bit About How That Affects Life in Lithuania?
You are Menting A Good Point. WHEN I STARTED WRITING The Script, I Really Wanted It To Be About Small Things, About Small Drams of Everyday Life Thatople Face. And then who the Russian Invasion of Ukraine Began, I Felt Like It Shifted My Perspective. And i couldn’t focus only on these dimll things. Of Course, The War Keeps Going on, and People Still To Lead their Lives, and You Do End Up Worrying About Your Relationships and Your Ambitions and All, Right? But There’s Also that Larger Problem, and, I, I Think, All of Us in Lithuania Feel This Anxiety Related to It, Because there is a Threat. Sometimes It Feels Bigger, SomeTimes It Feels Smaller.
It’s Hard to Say What’s Going to Happen. But We Feel This Anxiety about the war Being Nearby, and we feel a lot of empthyed toward ukrainians because of our shared history. SO it felt Important for me to reflect that. I Kind of See The World, or Life in Lithuania, as Before The Invasion and After – For Me, It Camed That Much.
And especialy index i’m a featuring a Ukrainian Character, I Could not Ignore It, And I Wuldn’s It’s Important to Reflect this Time, This Moment. Itok ME SEVERAL MONHS OF REWITING TO Kind of Understand the Main Questions that Precapied My Mind. I Considered, Up Until the Shooting, How to Really Portray It To Do It Justice, But So It Dosn’t Overtake the Main Story.
DID YOU ALWAYS Plan Oleg to be A Ukrainian Construction Worker or DID YOU MAKE HIM UKRAINIAN After The INVASION OF UKRAINE?
He was Ukrainian from the beginning. Six-Plus Years Ago, The Three Main Characters Came to Me Kind of Instantly and Together. He was Ukrainian, Because the APARTMENT BUILDING THAT I LIVE IN VILNIUS Underwent this renovation, and the constraction works Were from Ukraine and Belarus. That was just a reality.
How did you find the Three Actors?
They’re all professional actors. With Sarunas Zenkevicius, Who Plays Matas, We Have Been Working Together for 10 Years Now, We did A Couple Shorts Together. And Roman Lutskyi, Who Plays Oleg, I SAW IN [2021 Ukrainian movie] Reflection by valentyn vasyananovych, and that was quite magical. I Just Saw His Performance in that Film, and I Knew He Was Oleg, Even Thought It’s A VERY DIFFERENT ROLE AND A VERY DIFFERENT FILM. Roman Read the Treatment Only and Agreed to do it. And WHEN WE FIRST ZOOMED, FOR ME, IT WASN’T EVEN A CASTING. I KNEW I WANTED TO WORK WITH HIM, AND HE REALLY SEMED LIKE A MATCH. I’ve Never Before Experienced An Actor and A Character Being So Close in My Mind.
Speaker 1 11:56
This is sofunny because i said, oh, did they somehow all, like, have such innate charisma somehow, you Know, like, Like Without, Because and Think SomeTimes, Like, Like, Like, Like SomeTimes You Can Can Tell, Oh, They’re Trying Too Hard. And I Was Like, Oh, They Just Somehow and Care, and I Want Them All To Be Okay, You Know, Give Them A Hug, OR, LIKE, A HIGH FIVE OR SOMETING, IT BUT ALL IN A SLIGTLY DIFFERENT. So this is kind of like that they have, thaty all have, like, this level of, oh, i care, you know, and they worked off each Other soly chemistry there, and there’s love there,
They all very talented actors, but we also spend a Lot of time, especialy kygimante and Šarūnas, working on the script together, talking a lot about the aleut. The Lake, Just Spending Time Together. Because Development Took A While, We Just USED THAT TIME TO Kind of Bond. And THEN WE REHEARSED FOR A WHILE TOO, BECAUSE We Shot on Film.
QUITE A LOT OF SCENES PLAY OUT INDOORS. How did you find chooting so much in an apartment, which, i assume, comes with some limits?
IT WAS ONE OF THE CHALLENges, for Sure. The Key Was To Find the Right Apartment, One That Wound Be An Interesting Space In Itself. I Wanted It to Be a Soviet-Era Apartment Building, But It Had to Be Different and Unique, SO that thing people would be want to do move in. And that’s exactly what we found. And then, vytautas and i, Decides One Angle for Each Scene, and How to Combine a Handheld Camera with a TriPod. So, I Knew that the Film Set Wuld be One Apartmen, WHICH WAS The FRAME I HAD TO WORK WITHIN, AND THEN YOU HAVE TO Look for Those Solutions and Angles.
We ALSO TALKED A LOT About How to Shoot It Simple, But Not Convention. That was my concept. I DON’T LIKE A VERY PRETENYUS CAMERA, OR A FORMALIC CAMERA. I Like Simplicity in Cinema, But In A Way that It Is Not Boring and Convention.
Tell Me A Bit About Renovation As An Actual Construction Site But Also A Metaphor for the Construction Sites of One’s Life – and As the Film’s Titles.
Draft One Was Just to Mark the Action of Renovating the Building. But The Metaphor, I Guess, Evolved with the Script and the Characters. And, yeah, i like having double meanings, yeah. And I LIKE ONE-WORD TITLES.
How Much or Little Did You Want To Make the Film About Post-Soviet Trauma?
I Remember The First Drafts of the Script. I HAD This Professor at Columbia WHO KNOWS EASTERN European Film Well, and He Read My Script, and He Was Like: “Finally, A Film From Eastern Europe”. But then, who the Russian Invasion of Ukraine Began, and Realized We ALL Traumatized, WHETHER WE LIKE IT OR NOT, WHETER WE CAN AdMIT IT OR. TheSe are transgeneration traumas, and it’s about undersanding how your parents and grandsParents suffered. So that’s not in the forecast in the Film, but it is somewhere in the background. I Realized I Shouldn’t shy Away from this trauma.
Do you already have an Idea for your Next Movie, and Will We Seie You Write and Direct More Features?
I Really enjoyed this process, so and definitely want to do more. I’m currently also Making a personal Documentary About Art and Family. I Come from A Family of Artists, so i’m Diving Into this theme of How Art and Family Can Co-Exist.