Old ladies on a Euro trip in a documentary called "Lida Vanda Liusia"

This year, at the European Film Forum Scanorama, premières of yet three Lithuanian documentaries are presented. One of them is a documentary comedy "Lida Vanda Liusia". Director Julija Zubavičienė's debut full-length film is very personal and vivacious. The main heroines of the film are grandmothers of the director. Not two, as usual, but three. "My family liked to marry and to divorce, so as a child I had five grandfathers and six grandmothers. Family holidays used to be very joyful," – said J. Zubavičienė.

Idea for the plot of the film was prompted by the life itself. Having lived in London for some time, J. Zubavičienė decided to show her world also to her grandmothers who had never ever travelled anywhere. The women who do not agree well among themselves and belong to the post-soviet  generation, resolved to take part in this adventure, but the filming process was not easy. The most difficult thing for the director was to combine the two roles of her own – the granddaughter and the director. 

During the long journey on the way to London – Lida, Vanda and Liusia had to cross Belarus, Poland, Germany and France by car –  the grannies remembered their youth, the men they loved and the old grievances, revealing to their granddaughter incredible stories of their lives. According to J. Zubavičienė, this film is a feminine, lyrically eccentric journey to the family and to oneself.

"Lida Vanda Liusia" is J. Zubavičienė's first feature-length film, till now she had presented several short films. One of them – the film "Hunger" had already been shown at Scanorama, and in 2009 it was nominated for the Silver Crane as the best student work.