Displaced Childhood

 

REGINA and JURATE share memories of their turbulent childhood. Their authentic stories catapult us 70 years back into the past to Lithuania occupied by Soviets. REGINA (5 years) is with her family deported to Tajikistan. The hardships of unbearable heat, malaria, snakes, hard work in cotton plantations and almost dying mother vanish in the magic of ‘One Thousand and One Nights’ dreams about blossoming peach orchard, the magic lamp or flying carpet. JURATE (10 years) with her family flees to the West. Anxious and uncertain life on suitcases, camps for displaced persons converts into fantasies from the adventure books with crocodiles and cowboys in Wild West. There is also an animated fictional character PIONEER. He has a role of revealing the childhood of many kids who remained in Lithuania during the war. PIONEER is “inserted” into the Soviet propaganda footage and reveals the absurdity of historical injustice that condemned the children like Regina and Jurate to displaced childhood.

 

Participant: Giedre Narusyte Boots