I’ll admit that Ignas Miškinis’ feature film, The Southern Chronicles, grabbed me by the shoulders and thrust me into a time machine destined for the 80s. The film industry in Lithuania may not have the glitz and glamour of modern Hollywood, but the indie spirit of 80s Hollywood.
Rimants is a brawny 17-year-old living with his working-class family in Šiauliai, Lithuania. Set in the early 1990s, Rimants struggles to find his place in a new world transformed after the country’s recent independence. He spends his time playing rugby, dealing on the black market with his buddy Minde, slacking off at school, and idolizing macho icons like Jean-Claude Van Damme and Arnold Schwarzenegger. His parents disapprove of his direction, but Rimants is determined to forge his path. Throughout the film, Rimants finds life’s lessons through the game of Rugby. I know zero about rugby, but who knew there’s so much depth to the game?
Things change when he meets Monika, a cultured and middle-class girl who opens his eyes to literature and alternative possibilities. Despite being recruited by the adult rugby league and gaining public notoriety in the sport, Rimants faces personal and class-based obstacles. His attempts to impress Monika, including exploring books like Jonathan Livingston Seagull and The Idiot, reveal his insecurities about their different worlds. As he becomes closer to Monika, he finds blending in with her upper-class friends increasingly challenging.
“…left at a crossroads between sports, drinking, and loose women, and a more refined and cultured world of books and poetry…”
When one of Monika’s friends embarrasses him during the party, Rimants violent side comes out, and now Monika has nothing to do with him. Rimants is now left at a crossroads between the world he’s comfortable with in sports, drinking, and loose women with a more refined and cultured world of books and poetry.
This is nostalgia talking, but I miss movies like The Southern Chronicles, and, weirdly, I find myself in Lithuania to get my fix. First, filmmaker Miškinis’ world reminds me of the low-budget U.S. films of the 1980s and 1990s. Džiugas Grinys plays the 17-year-old Rimants, though he looks closer to his twenties. Rimants gets into typical teen mischief, though in newly independent Lithuania, that means selling sausages on the black market instead of drilling peepholes in girls’ shower rooms. The teen sex, though, is much more thoughtful than U.S. sexcapades of films like Porky’s.
The other word I’d use to describe The Southern Chronicles is refreshing. In the U.S., coming-of-age stories feel formulaic and restrained by political correctness. While Rimants is hardly a horn dog, he is a boy who likes girls, plays rugby, and refuses to take life seriously. His character arc comes off as authentic and thoughtful as we see Rimants truly come of age. His final transformation is unexpected and satisfying.
Given the fact that his actors are ten years older than their characters, director Ignas Miškinis and Eglė Vertelytė’s script have a flair for storytelling, especially within this teen sex comedy. It rarely goes over the top, but it pushes its limits, and the result feels authentic and charming. Consider that we, as members of the human race, are not that different from one another.
For screening information, visit the official site of The Southern Chronicles.
"…we, as members of the human race, are not that different..."
