High stakes for film director

VILNIUS - Ignas Jonynas’ debut feature film The Gambler has been announced as Lithuania’s submission for the Academy Award nomination as Best Foreign-Language Film, reports ELTA.
The Gambler is a stylish thriller about an ambulance driver whose addiction to gambling leads him to play a dangerous game with patients’ lives. On the one hand, he is the best and brightest paramedic in his company. On the other, he is a voracious gambler. Soon he finds himself with increasingly mounting debts and decides that an illegal game related to his work will be his only way out.

The film premiered last year in San Sebastian’s Kutxa-New Directors section and successfully traveled to more than 30 festivals.
Jonynas’ debut is a Lithuanian-Latvian co-production, produced by Studio Uljana Kim (Lithuania) and Locomotive Productions (Latvia).

The award ceremony will take place on Feb. 22.