Vytautas Puidokas: Murmuring Hearts

There is a short text at the beginning of the film bringing us to the location: “… a network of rural communities (that) provides shelter to individuals struggling with addiction and mental health issues”.

A former abuser is running the place, where a small group of adult men seeks help to get rid of their alcohol abuse and where Matas, a kid, 14 years old, is placed, away from his mother and other grown-ups in family care. Žanas, the host, sits at the end of the table, when table prayers are held in the morning before it’s time to work – milking the cows, getting them out to the field and into the cow shed, cleaning and again cleaning.

Good intentions but is it a good place for a boy to be with adult men? No, it is not, says the film in its obversational focus on how Matas most of the time is being shouted at by the others, when he is doing something wrong. A farm that should do the best for its “inhabitants” but for Matas, suffering from anger and lack of care, what comes first?, as he says it himself, “the men make my aggression grow”. He starts to act like the men, kicking the animals, shouting at the cows etc. Not nice to watch.

It is a well made documentary, great cinematography of beautiful Lithuanian landscapes, I could have hoped that the director could have gone deeper with one of the adult men or give us Žanas story, but what we get is a strong portrait of a boy with a fate that you can find everywhere; in Denmark there is a constant discussion about private care initiatives, do they work, is the pedagogical and the fundamentals of care present?

Did the film or will the film raise debate? There are other ways of treating Matas, for sure.

At least the film was awarded as the best documentary in Lithuania, the so-called Silver Crane, and as a co-production with France and Norway a basic foreign distribution should be secured.

Lithuania, France, Norway, 2024, 81 mins.