SYNOPSICS
Dievu miskas (2005) is a Lithuanian movie. Algimantas Puipa has directed this movie. Valentinas Masalskis,Steven Berkoff,Liubomiras Laucevicius,Sarunas Puidokas are the starring of this movie. It was released in 2005. Dievu miskas (2005) is considered one of the best Biography,Drama,War movie in India and around the world.
The story about one man- an artist and an intellectual- who was imprisoned by two brutal regimes, the Nazis and the Soviets. 'The Professor' is a man who lives by his own personal version of the Ten Commandments. After miraculously surviving imprisonment in a Nazi concentration camp through a bit of ironic fate, he writes a memoir of his life, which becomes the target of the Soviet censors. The so-called "freedom" of Communism becomes just as oppressive as the German concentration camp.
Dievu miskas (2005) Trailers
Dievu miskas (2005) Reviews
yet another downfall of LT cinema
The book is by far one of the greatest feats of irony ever put down on paper. I have read it, enjoyed it and plan to recommend it to many people. I usually judge a film by its music in the first 5 seconds or so and was quite excited when I saw the Napoleonic view of soldiers and heard the daunting orchestra; but once the narrator started speaking, my first thought was "I have not sat down to see O.K. theatre." Ninety-five percent of the actors in this film seem unnatural, like they're reading the Illiad, or maybe on stage in "Shopping and F-ing." And yet again, Lithuanians simply cannot produce a movie that is actually movie-like. Maybe its just me, and others enjoy the acting-with-your-voice technique, but it is tiresome to hear the same overly-dramatic intonations coming from artificially-emotional faces. I would really like to see a Lithuanian movie which even remotely mirrors natural countenance. I also wanted to see something of a Fellini-style to highlight the irony of Sruoga. But no irony here. The images were also not impressive. Moreover, It did bother me how the prisoners sat around smoking and drinking, showering extensively with hot water (judging from the steam) and gazing out the windows. I know that Puipa could not include everything, but this time, he chose the wrong things to bring out. I would never exhibit this film to my foreign friends as an example of Lithuanian cultural life.
Read the novel first, then don't watch the movie
One of the greatest directors of Lithuanian cinema - Algimantas Puipa. One of the greatest novels - "The Forest of Gods" by Lithuanian writer Balys Sruoga. One of the worst screenings ever. A true story about a professor who struggled with the inhumanity of Nazi in one of their death camps (Stuthof). Irony was the only weapon he had. "I laugh a lot during hard moments. I am deeply ironic - not to the people I'm going to die with, but to the whole wide world." - wrote Balys Sruoga in a letter to his wife from Stuthof death camp in 1944. The novel is a masterpiece, however, the movie - far from it: unnatural dialogs, forced acting.
I was expecting better....
Yes, i'm from Lithuania and movie made in our country is a really rare thing... All the people were expecting a miracle or a masterpiece, i guess, while they were waiting for the premiere. I was waiting too. But after all i can certainly state, that there was too much fuss about it. Although the shooting was good, I think they didn't convey the stories point (the film was based n a book B. Sruoga "The forest of gods"). The concentration camp itself was too soft - the prisoners lived there and that's it. The whole scenes were too dramatic - there's absolutely no such dramatism in the book. I read this book a long time ago, and it is was really good but the film is nothing what i imagined while reading the book. I think the director forgot about the main feature of the book - the irony, sometimes even black irony.. After all, i can't vote for this movie less than 7 points. This is very subjective because i was really happy to see a new Lithuanian film after a long time.
Organic. Holocaust. Masterpiece
First thing: this movie "based on the novel". BASED on the novel. So all those, that downrate it, because the movie does not follow beloved book, should start to learn separating one media from another. There are no synthesized emotions in this. Everything feels real, or at least as real as the emotions in the diary of someone that is waiting for his days to end in concentration camp. The main advantage of Puipa's masterpiece is this: There is no prejudice, no-goodie-white-hoodie and no evil-bad-wolf-hanibal-lector type characters. Everyone is show as a human. You will not feel sympathy for guards or collaborators, but you will understand things like "why do such people rise in times like this" or even start thinking about reasons that could turn good people into animals. Director won't tell you what to feel! It's such a rare feature, that it is hard to understand this concept at first. There is some black humor in this movie too. It's dark, noir even, although it's so true, that it feels close even if you can't connect to WWII in any way. Subtle details, real-life philosophy, humour, rich characters, absolutely stunning camera work makes this movie one of the best. It's not a fairy tale as Shindler's list is: you wont feel guilty if you are not crying in the end and everyone will understand why are you weeping if you do.
Recommended
Hello everybody, I'm from Lithuania, the country where this movie was made :) Although I haven't seen it yet, I've read the book, which the movie is based on, "Balys Sruoga - Dievu Miskas" (Forest of the Gods) several times and the least I can say is that it's absolutely wonderful, capturing the cruelties of the concentration camp with subtle black humour and irony. Especially when describing the main "bad guys" (gards, authority of the camp). As you may know the book which the movie is based on is an autobiography of the author Balys Sruoga, he suffered in this camp and survived, then wrote a book. Not sure how good the movie is, but judging from the book it should be a masterpiece. Obviously, this movie should be viewed in original Lithuanian language for maximum effect, because sometimes, well most of the time, the subtitles are somewhat terrible. That'll be all,sorry for mistakes if any :)