The world premiere of M. Kavtaradze’s new film – at the prestigious Sundance Film Festival
Lithuanian director Marija Kavtaradze’s film SLOW will have its world premiere at the Sundance International Film Festival next year. After announcing the program of feature films for the festival in the USA on Wednesday evening, it became clear that M. Kavtaradze’s work together with other 11 films from all over the world will compete at the World Dramatic Cinema Competition.
„Sundance is one of my favourite festivals, so the joy is double and, to be honest, it’s still hard to believe that we will present the film there,” smiles the director of the film, Marija Kavtaradze. „Many thanks to the whole team – I probably won’t stop thanking them for a long time. In some films, you really don’t think about how to become interesting to the whole world, because when you try to please everyone, you end up pleasing no one. You just create and if you do it really sincerely, accurately and timely, the story can become universal and interesting for many. We seem to have succeeded – we made the film with love, so what a blessing it is that our work will be seen by such a large audience!”
„This is a huge evaluation not only for the director and the film team, but also for the entire Lithuanian film industry – Marija Kavtaradze’s film will be only the second Lithuanian feature film to appear at this prestigious film festival, which is the first place the eyes of the world turn to every year,” says the film’s producer Marija Razgutė (M-Films). M. Kavtaradze is already well known to Lithuanian viewers thanks to her debut film SUMMER SURVIVORS (2018), which was appreciated by both – audience and critics. The director’s latest work SLOW will be released in Lithuania by the end of 2023.
In the romantic drama SLOW, modern dance dancer Elena meets Dovydas, a sign language interpreter, assigned to interpret for deaf young people in her classes. The connection between the two is sudden, dynamic, immediate, and despite everyday distractions, they get closer to each other – the platonic relationship turns into a romantic one. However, as they intertwine more and more closely, it becomes more and more difficult to make sacrifices and find compromises – each is forced to find the limits of his generosity to the other.
Still, in the development stage, M. Kavtaradze’s new film was presented at the „When East Meets West” program in Trieste, Italy, and earlier this year it was selected for the prestigious Berlinale Co-production Market, where the director introduced herself to the international film industry.
Marija Kavtaradze, the director of the film SLOW, is also the author of its script, cinematographer: Laurynas Bareiša, production designer: Sigita Šimkūnaitė, producer: Marija Razgutė. The production of the film is partly financed by the Lithuanian Film Center, it is being co-produced with Spain and Sweden.
This film is the second feature film of Marija Kavtaradze. Her first work, SUMMER SURVIVORS (2018), had its international premiere at the Toronto Film Festival, and after receiving acclaim at home, the film traveled to many international festivals, won audience and jury awards, and was acquired by Italy, Latvia, Albania, Slovenia and other countries’ television, as well as UK and US VOD platforms.
