| The Saint | |
| Native Name: | |
| Director: | Andrius Blaževičius |
| Producer: |
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| Starring: |
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| Cinematography: | |
| Editing: | Silvija Vilkaitė |
| Music: | Vytautas Rasimavičius |
| Runtime: | 96 minutes |
| Country: | Lithuania |
| Language: | Lithuanian |
The Saint (Lithuanian: Šventasis) is a Lithuanian film written and directed by Andrius Blaževičius and released in 2016.
It is a social drama exploring themes of social pressure, vulnerability, masculinism, the role of religion in our society, and the fragility of post-Soviet countries in the late 2010s.
Lithuanian provincial town is facing the economic crisis in 2008. Vytas, portrayed by Marius Repšys, gets fired from the factory. Pushed by his wife, he immediately starts looking for a new job, but not really successfully. After having his haircut done, Vytas starts looking for a new love affair with a hairdresser Marija, played by Gelmine Glemzaite. This is not really successful either. Finally, Vytas gets involved into a third search – he starts looking for a guy who posted video on YouTube, claiming he saw Jesus Christ in their town. This is the only time he succeeds.[1]
This is the first feature film of Andrius Blaževičius. After producing his graduation short film Ten reasons (2011), Lithuanian producer Marija Razgutė (M-Films) signed a second collaboration with the director for his first feature film The Saint, originally titled Crisis.[2] [3]
The film had one of the best openings at the Lithuanian box office in 2017. It remained in the number one spot for its second week in Lithuania and exceeded 66,000 admissions in its first week of release, accounting for nearly a quarter of all entries for the week.[4]
The film received generally positive reviews from critics. It garnered over 70% positive reviews, with an average score of 3.4/5 based on 154 collected reviews on the website Letterboxd.[5]
| 47th International Kiev Molodist Film Festival (Belarus) 2018 [6] | 2018 | Grand Prix | Andrius Blaževičius | Won | |
| International Vilnius Film Festival (Kino pavasari)[7] | 2017 | Best Actor | Marius Repšys | Won | |
| National Lithuanian Film Cinema Award "Silver Crane"[8] | 2017 | Best Feature Film | Andrius Blaževičius | Won | |
| 2017 | Best Director | Andrius Blaževičius | Won | ||
| 2017 | Best Screenplay | Andrius Blaževičius, Marija Kavtaradzė, Teklė Kavtaradzė | Won | ||
| 2017 | Best Actor | Marius Repšys | Won | ||
| 2017 | Best Supporting Actress | Gelminė Glemžaitė | Won | ||
| 2017 | Best Supporting Actor | Valentinas Krulikovskis | Won | ||
| 2017 | Best Individual Achievement | Producer Marija Razgutė | Selected | ||
| 2017 | Best Cinematography | Linas Dabriška | Selected | ||
| 2017 | Best Actress | Indrė Patkauskaitė | Selected | ||
| 2017 | Best Editing | Silvija Vilkaitė | Selected | ||
| 2017 | Best Art Direction | Aurimas Akšys | Selected | ||
| Lübeck Nordic Film Days Festival (Germany) [9] | 2017 | Selected | Andrius Blaževičius | Selected | |
| Crossing Europe Festival (Austria) | 2017 | Selected | Andrius Blaževičius | Selected | |
| Trieste International Film Festival (Italy) | 2017 | Selected | Andrius Blaževičius | Selected | |
| Brisbane International Film Festival (Australia) | 2017 | Selected | Andrius Blaževičius | Selected | |
| 23rd International Minsk Film Festival, Listapad (Belarus) | 2016 | Special Jury Mention | Andrius Blaževičius | Selected | |
| Warsaw International Film Festival (Poland) [10] | 2016 | Selected | Andrius Blaževičius | Selected | |
| Busan International Film Festival (South Korea) | 2016 | Selected | Andrius Blaževičius | Selected |