The film and discussion evening of the Estonian Institute of Historical Memory at Sõprus cinema presents the Lithuanian film "The Poet." This is a tense drama that addresses the themes of resistance and human dignity under a totalitarian regime.

Following the film, historian and senior researcher at the Estonian Institute of Historical Memory Meelis Saueauk, archaeologist Mauri Kiudsoo, and director Erle Veber will help to interpret what was seen.

The screening is free of charge. 
The screening is supported by the Embassy of the Republic of Lithuania.

Synopsis: Recently employed teacher Kostas Skinkys arrives at a small village school. A famous journalist and renowned poet has fallen into disgrace for illegal publications and anti-Soviet forbidden verses. Suspicious locals prefer to test his loyalty, while the children eagerly quote his verses "To My Soviet Motherland," written under pressure to glorify "Uncle Lenin" in order to save his parents from deportation.

The introverted Kostas recognizes his former classmate and library worker Julija. The woman is in no hurry to trust her former sweetheart, but eventually shows him a secret winter path to the underground bunker of the Dainava resistance group. The partisan leader Tauras demands that the poet publish more hopeful verses in support of the exhausted people. In those terrifying years full of doubts, instructions, and demands, all people were forced to make choices: to adapt, to resist, to obey, to sell oneself out, to collaborate, to betray, to seize opportunities, or to surrender. A person's life depended on what they thought or said, even if you didn't realize you were lying to yourself.

The majority of the events are based on real confessions, published facts, and valuable memories collected from helpful relatives and preserved notes. Although the main characters are fictional, they are created based on the real biographies of several prototypes. Kostas Skinkys combines two Lithuanian poets, Kostas Kubilinskas and Kazys Skinkys. What you witness on the cinema screen could have really happened, because it is so authentically and boldly recreated in the film.