Donatas Banionis Movies
- 1999
- NR
The first feature of Lithuanian Valdas Navasaitis is a drama which unravels the hopeless 1970s, when people were deprived of their roots and forced to sit and watch their lives slip from their fingers. In a decrepit house that once belonged to a bourgeois family, several families seek shelter. Senis, a 65-year-old alcoholic, lives on the ground floor with his wife and their 16-year-old daughter. Senis is a survivor of the Nazis as well as the communist camps. He drowns the pain of his memories in a nearby pub and in talking to a depressed young laborer, Lorenca. Later on, a young couple and a lonely eccentric who enjoys only his cat's company join the inhabitants. Children wile away the time with useless games or spying on adults. When Lorenca hangs himself at the ruins of a nearby factory, the lives are shaken up. During the dinner held for the deceased, they find a moment of common hope. Kiemas was screened at the 1999 Karlovy Vary International Film Festival and as part of the Directors Fortnight at the 1999 Cannes Film Festival. ~ Gönül Dönmez-Colin, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Donatas Banionis, Richardas Vitkaitas, (more)
- 1981
Facts is a dramatization of a massacre in a Lithuanian village during World War II when Nazis rounded up over 100 men, women, and children accused of partisan activity and then torched the houses in which they were held. Using Russian interrogations of a few survivors, the testimony of villagers, and some of the Germans responsible for the killing, the film gradually reconstructs the event and its context. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Regimantas Adomajtis, Juozas Budraitis, (more)
- 1979
In this stylish reworking of Robert Louis Stevenson's The Suicide Club, the Russian filmmakers stripped the book down to its essence while also devising comic subplots that are not in the original work. Prince Florizel (Oleg Dal), a ruler of some small fictional Middle-European country, finds his stay in London extremely boring. Every night he and his buddy Colonel Geraldine (Igor Dmitriev) go out looking for some adventures and excitement. One night they find themselves under the spell of a suicidal painter who leads them to The Suicide Club, run by the shadowy 'Chairman' (Donatas Banionis). The rules of the Suicide Club are simple: the members, all well-bred citizens with a penchant for death, decide the murderer and victim from a draw of the cards. The Chairman quickly and ruthlessly dispatches with those who do not want to abide by the rules and soon the prince finds himself sucked into real danger. ~ All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Oleg Dal, Donatas Banionis, (more)
- 1977
This western was made in the Soviet Union. It follows the attempts of a miner, a reporter, and a nightclub singer to save other gold miners from greedy claim jumpers who have found oil on the miner's land. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Donatas Banionis, Mircea Veroiu, (more)
- 1976
In this semiautobiographical movie, director Konrad Wolf tells the story of four German anti-fascists, who have gone to the Russian side during World War II, three of whom have volunteered to re-enter Germany behind the lines. The particular focus of the story is on the events which have brought each man to the point of leaving his country in the first place. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
