Lithuania post-WWII, via Ohman/Sruoginis/ Johnston's history doc, THE INVISIBLE FRONT

When it comes to which Russian satellites we've heard most about down the post-World War II decades (during which Russia, together with its conquered and dominated surrounding neighbors, formed the USSR), Eastern European countries like Czechoslovakia, Poland and Hungary have been much more in the news than the Baltic States of Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia. This imbalance has changed a bit now, thanks to the new documentary, THE INVISIBLE FRONT, which tackles the evidently thorny history of Lithuania, a country that gained indepen-dence from Russia after World War I, only to lose it post-WWII, when Russia again took over the little country. Lithuania, however, had quite a movement of partisan fighters determined to wrest the country's freedom back from Russia.

Those partisans (shown above and below) are the primary subject of this new documentary from first-time filmmakers Jonas Ohlman, Vincas Sruoginis and Mark Johnston (whose photos and bios can be found here: Click and scroll down). Because most of us have heard so little about Lithuania -- whose struggle against the Nazis pales beside its struggle against Russia -- The Invisible Front should prove a welcome addition to our knowledge.

In addition to the usual talking heads that we would expect to come from Lithuania itself, this one offers some folk (and some of their progeny) who worked for the other side: Russians, and even some Communist Lithuanians, too. (How the filmmakers got these people to cooperate in the filming might constitute a story unto itself.)

Chief among the partisans was a man named Juozas Lukša (shown above and below, center) whose feats of derry-do and commitment to his native land seem unusually bold and brave. It is Lukša's story more than any other that is highlighted here, and it is certainly a good one. We learn of and meet his widow, Nijole (shown with Juozas two photos below), who fills us in on much that happened to the man and why -- at least so far as she was concerned.

The movie follows a kind of timeline as it gives us Lithuanian history from pre-WWI up to the present. And though I am sure this was not the purpose of the filmmakers, in telling their story, they give us what is basically a tale of the slow death of the fight for freedom, of ideals lost and citizens co-opted into collaborators due to the seemingly unending rule of Russia over the tiny country. It was nearly a half century later, in the early 1990s that the Soviet Union finally broke apart, and Lithuanian became the first of the Baltic States to declare its independence.

Some interesting ideas percolate as the movie progresses. One now-aged female partisan, who was tortured  by the Russians, allows that she always felt that women stood up to torture better than did the men. (One wonders what she might make of the new movie Force Majeure?). And the man most responsible for Lukša's capture and death (on September 4, 1951) tries to explain and half-excuse his actions. (He is primary among those about whom you will wonder how the filmmakers persuaded cooperation).

While this movie opens the door to Lithuania, and the recent and unusual animated film Rocks in My Pockets, showed us some of the history of Latvia, let's hope it won't be long before something new and worthwhile comes out of Estonia to complete a kind of Baltic trilogy.

Meanwhile, The Invisible Front -- the title refers to the code name used by the Soviet Interior Forces for any armed resistance in the occupied territories of the former Soviet Union, as word of this sort of thing was not supposed to leak out to the various populaces to encourage further disruptions of Soviet rule -- opens theatrically this Friday, November 7, in New York City at the Cinema Village. The following Friday, November 14, it will open in Chicago at the Music Box Theatre, and on November 21, look for its opening in Los Angeles at Laemmle's Music Hall 3. 

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Jonas Ohlman, Lithuania, Lithuanian cinema, Mark Johnston, partisans, THE INVISIBLE FRONT, Vincas Sruoginis, World War I, World War II,

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Brothers & lovers in WWI: Pat O'Connor's film of Michael Morpurgo's novel, PRIVATE PEACEFUL

A lovely example of the kind of movie-making we don't see all that often, PRIVATE PEACEFUL is a British film set about 100 years back during the lead-up to World War I that holds a mirror to life among the titled gentry, as well as those who labored for them. As my spouse noted about halfway along, "This makes a nice antidote to Downton Abbey." Indeed. In fact, I don't think I noticed a single "overheard conversation" in the entire film.

As directed by veteran filmmaker Pat O'Connor (shown at right), with a screenplay written by Michael Morpurgo, the author of the novel on which the film is based, Private Peaceful -- surely an ironic title, except that the family name of the central characters is Peaceful -- the movie is old-fashioned in a good sense: It tells a easy-to-follow story well, with good dialog and fine performances and visuals that do all they should to carry us along and make the trip a worthwhile and often quite beautiful one. We spend most of the film in the lush British countryside on the estate of a nasty, entitled Colonel (the last performance caught on film from the late, rotund actor Richard Griffiths, below) who rules with a stupid iron hand, has an ailing wife and makes eyes at Frances de la Tour (shown at bottom) -- who plays either the aunt or grandmother of the Peaceful family (I was never quite sure which).

The film begins with a Court Martial of one of the Peaceful brothers, Charlie and Tommo, during the War, and then cuts back to their childhood to tell us the story of the pair -- played as children by Hero Fiennes-Tiffin and Samuel Bottomley, shown respectively, left to right, below --

and the young girl -- Izzy Meikle-Small, shown below, right, tugging -- that both boys fall in love with almost upon meeting her.

Quite soon, we're with the adult version of the brothers, now played by the suddenly ubiquitous Jack O' Connell (below, left, of 300: Rise of an Empire and Starred Up) and George MacKay (below, right, of Pride and For Those in Peril), both of whom do a fine job in delineating character and growth.

Maxine Peak (below, from Silk, Run & Jump) plays the Peaceful mom, Hazel, and does her usual commendable job or providing love, reassurance and a strong, female figure.

O'Connor and Morpurgo easily weave past and present into the story so that we're back and forth on the battle field, or in military prison, or home with the family as the story unfolds. The tale is full of beauty and sadness, and although I'm told that Morpurgo wrote this as a young adult novel, the movie does not seem skewed to that age-range at all. It is simply adult. (That's John Lynch, below, who plays the Peacefuls' -- as well as the viewer's -- military bête noire.)

The themes of love of family and country, of the waste of war, and the unfair divisions produced by class are all brought to the fore. Toward the end  the movie seems to deliberately obfuscate identity -- which brother is actually being court-martialed. Or are both? -- and whether this is due to faulty editing or the filmmaker's attempt to show us that, where family love is concerned, everyone is equal, I'm not sure.

In any case, this confusion finally comes clear, and the movie ends as a strong and moving anti-war/anti-class tale. Made in 2012, it has taken the film some time to reach these shores, but Private Peaceful -- released through BBC Worldwide North America, and running 103 minutes -- opens this Friday, October 31 in New York City (at the AMC Empire 25) and in Los Angeles area at Laemmle's Playhouse 7 and will expand to other markets as the weeks and months pass.

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British film, Class, Michael Morpurgo, old-fashioned cinema, Pat O'Connor, PRIVATE PEACEFUL, war, World War I,

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