Life in a Lithuanian glasshouse

  • 2004-11-01
  • By Milda Seputyte
VILNIUS - "Like a glowing snake with all its windows lit, the passenger train flashed past the town. As it passed, the windows in the house began to rattle, and the woman pressed her palms against the trembling glass."

This is an excerpt from "Land of Glass," a novel by the popular Lithuanian writer Vanda Juknaite, which has now been adapted into a film by director Janina Lapinskaite and hits Lithuanian cinema screens on Nov. 5.

"Land of Glass" was first published in 1995 to strong critical acclaim. It tells the story of a young woman suffering from both postnatal depression and the harsh social conditions of the time. Her baby is diagnosed with a terminal illness while her husband unsympathetically blames her for their deteriorating life. The film manages to retain the novel's poetic sensibility while using a direct and elliptical style of narrative.

Lapinskaite has directed dozens of documentary films about "ordinary" Lithuanian people and to some extent "Land of Glass" has the raw, naturalistic feel of a documentary. The film also has a somewhat lyrical, dreamlike feel to it in its understated strangeness.

"Passions do not flare up in the film's plot. Perhaps Juknaite's works are closer in style to the Japanese poetry form haiku," Lapinskaite explained.

The big screen adaptation of the novel makes a few minor alterations to the original story, such as replacing the central character's eldest son with a daughter, although the main focus of the film remains the same in that it focuses on the desperately sad plight of a woman living on the periphery of life and society.

When the woman gives birth to a second child, who is unwanted by her husband, her life turns from bad to worse. The infant has a rare terminal disease and her once beloved husband becomes unbearably cold toward her, turning her life into a daily horror of apprehension, fear and longing.

She visits the doctor to try and get some help, but he ends up trying to molest her instead. Her unbearable depression starts leading to strange car rides at night, tears and tablets.

Her husband cannot understand or justify her psychological distress. Instead he blames her for shattering the tranquility of their family.

This domestic tension also seriously touches their 7-year-old daughter who becomes increasingly reticent and given over to solving odd existential questions. The story slowly works toward its inevitably tragic ending, which involves a grotesque scene with a stray dog.

"Land of Glass" is a powerful story that is not afraid of throwing stones in a glasshouse.