Film, exhibition and book "Liebe Oma, Guten Tag!"
This project started as a film for one sister (Jurate Samulionyte) and as a visual project for another sister (Vilma Samulionyte). In the end they had created the film, the exhibition and the book.
Film. Time to talk. About everything.
The creative documentary “Liebe Oma, Guten Tag!” is a film where two sisters from Lithuania – a filmmaker and a photographer – take a journey through their German grandmother’s past, which is full of unanswered questions.
Authors’ grandmother was from a German minority in Lithuania, which was expelled by Nazi policy “Heim ins Reich” to Germany during the WWII. She spent 3 years in Germany and nobody could explain why and how she came back to the Soviet Union on her own, separated from her family. While searching for reasons of coming back the authors encounter her love story, discomfort of being German in Soviet Lithuania and a chain of suicides in their family.
The filmmakers debate with their mother and other family members the questions of homeland, family secrets, guilt and German roots. They are part of the third generation of „Lithuanian-Germans“, who are raised to forget their German roots. Certain destinies did repeat themselves within their family through generations. The reality is stronger than any written script and gives the most unexpected dramaturgy for characters during this project. Only by understanding their past, they have a chance of understanding how they should live now.
Author driven documentary “Liebe Oma, Guten Tag!” is made from a need to talk of unspoken topics, to look for answers and hopefully to break taboos.
Authors and Directors: J?rate Samulionyte & Vilma Samulionyte
Producers: Ieva Norviliene/TREMORA (Lithuania) & Dagmar Blume-Niehage/DAGSTAR FILMS (Germany)
Cinematographer: Audrius Zelenius
Sound: Martynas Tamulis
Music: Markus Aust
Editors: Linas Grubys & Nele Jeromin
Editing Consultant: Gesa Marten
Duration: 84’14’’
Year: 2017
Watch the film HERE (Kino Fondas)
Watch the film HERE (Telia)
Watch the film HERE (Zmones Cinema)
More about film on social media
Exhibition. Pact of silence
The exhibition “Liebe Oma, Guten Tag!, or The Pact of Silence” includes visual material gathered and created while sisters were working on a documentary film. It’s all divided into three segments (time periods before, during and after the war), telling stories about the three stages of the life of their grandmother – a Lithuanian-German Ella Fink (El? Finkyt?) Šnipaitien? – during different political regimes. It’s a sort of an expedition into the family’s German part, into their post-war life in Lithuania.
Fragmented placement of photos covers a few unknown plot holes and helps to understand certain sequences of events, also bringing a visual feel of the daily lives at the time. There is a particular vibe that bursts out of the letters when paired with photographic information – a vibe of young people who you only knew when they were already old.
Book. Limited edition publication
This multi-layered book project combines images from the artist’s family archive, her own photographs and research material. Historical and personal narratives are told using visual means. By retelling her own family experience, the artist analyses global historical and geopolitical contexts and events during WWII on the border of Lithuania and East Prussia – and its aftermath today.
Date of publication: May 2018
Place of publication: Lithuania
Dimensions: 13×21.5×4.3cm
Edition size: 99 + 6 AP
Type of binding: staple, Swiss binding
Number of pages: 80 pages book, 24 pages booklet, three 48×60cm posters
Type of paper: Munken Print Cream 80g, Munken Pure 400g, Arctic Volume Ivory 130g, Colorplan Vermillon Ripple 350g
Cover: Metal Box
Type of printing: offset, silkscreen, foil printing, digital, digital UV printing
Printer: Druka, Algis Kaveckis, Elegante Press
Binding: NoRoutine Books
Publisher: NoRoutine Books
Designer: Gytis Skudzinskas
ISBN: 978-609-8216-02-8
More about the publication HERE
Film, exhibition and book "Liebe Oma, Guten Tag!"
This project started as a film for one sister (Jurate Samulionyte) and as a visual project for another sister (Vilma Samulionyte). In the end they had created the film, the exhibition and the book.
Film. Time to talk. About everything.
The creative documentary “Liebe Oma, Guten Tag!” is a film where two sisters from Lithuania – a filmmaker and a photographer – take a journey through their German grandmother’s past, which is full of unanswered questions.
Authors’ grandmother was from a German minority in Lithuania, which was expelled by Nazi policy “Heim ins Reich” to Germany during the WWII. She spent 3 years in Germany and nobody could explain why and how she came back to the Soviet Union on her own, separated from her family. While searching for reasons of coming back the authors encounter her love story, discomfort of being German in Soviet Lithuania and a chain of suicides in their family.
The filmmakers debate with their mother and other family members the questions of homeland, family secrets, guilt and German roots. They are part of the third generation of „Lithuanian-Germans“, who are raised to forget their German roots. Certain destinies did repeat themselves within their family through generations. The reality is stronger than any written script and gives the most unexpected dramaturgy for characters during this project. Only by understanding their past, they have a chance of understanding how they should live now.
Author driven documentary “Liebe Oma, Guten Tag!” is made from a need to talk of unspoken topics, to look for answers and hopefully to break taboos.
Authors and Directors: J?rate Samulionyte & Vilma Samulionyte
Producers: Ieva Norviliene/TREMORA (Lithuania) & Dagmar Blume-Niehage/DAGSTAR FILMS (Germany)
Cinematographer: Audrius Zelenius
Sound: Martynas Tamulis
Music: Markus Aust
Editors: Linas Grubys & Nele Jeromin
Editing Consultant: Gesa Marten
Duration: 84’14’’
Year: 2017
Watch the film HERE (Kino Fondas)
Watch the film HERE (Telia)
Watch the film HERE (Zmones Cinema)
More about film on social media
Exhibition. Pact of silence
The exhibition “Liebe Oma, Guten Tag!, or The Pact of Silence” includes visual material gathered and created while sisters were working on a documentary film. It’s all divided into three segments (time periods before, during and after the war), telling stories about the three stages of the life of their grandmother – a Lithuanian-German Ella Fink (El? Finkyt?) Šnipaitien? – during different political regimes. It’s a sort of an expedition into the family’s German part, into their post-war life in Lithuania.
Fragmented placement of photos covers a few unknown plot holes and helps to understand certain sequences of events, also bringing a visual feel of the daily lives at the time. There is a particular vibe that bursts out of the letters when paired with photographic information – a vibe of young people who you only knew when they were already old.
Book. Limited edition publication
This multi-layered book project combines images from the artist’s family archive, her own photographs and research material. Historical and personal narratives are told using visual means. By retelling her own family experience, the artist analyses global historical and geopolitical contexts and events during WWII on the border of Lithuania and East Prussia – and its aftermath today.
Date of publication: May 2018
Place of publication: Lithuania
Dimensions: 13×21.5×4.3cm
Edition size: 99 + 6 AP
Type of binding: staple, Swiss binding
Number of pages: 80 pages book, 24 pages booklet, three 48×60cm posters
Type of paper: Munken Print Cream 80g, Munken Pure 400g, Arctic Volume Ivory 130g, Colorplan Vermillon Ripple 350g
Cover: Metal Box
Type of printing: offset, silkscreen, foil printing, digital, digital UV printing
Printer: Druka, Algis Kaveckis, Elegante Press
Binding: NoRoutine Books
Publisher: NoRoutine Books
Designer: Gytis Skudzinskas
ISBN: 978-609-8216-02-8
More about the publication HERE
