Vytautas ZALAKEVIСIUS
Витаутас ЖАЛАКЯВИЧЮС
Vytautas ZALAKEVIСIUS
USSR, 1966, 106mn 
Black and white, fiction
No One Wanted to Die
▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪

Никто не хотел умирать

 

 Personne ne voulait mourir

 Nikto ne khotel umirat

Other titles : Niekas nenorejo mirti
 
Directed by : Vytautas ZALAKEVIСIUS (Витаутас ЖАЛАКЯВИЧЮС)
Writing credits : Vytautas ZALAKEVIСIUS (Витаутас ЖАЛАКЯВИЧЮС)
 
Cast
Regimantas ADOMAITIS (Регимантас АДОМАЙТИС) ...Donatas
Kazimir VITKUS (Казимир ВИТКУС) ...Tevas
 
Cinematography : Ionas GRITSIUS (Ионас ГРИЦЮС)
Production design : Algirdas NICIUS (Альгирдас НИЧЮС)
Production : Litovskaya Studia
Spectators : 22,8 millions of spectators
Release date in Russia : 05/09/1966
 
Language lithuanien
Site : IMDb

Plot synopsis
The film takes place in Lithuania, two years after the end of the second world war. Old Lokis, president of an agrarian cooperative, is slaughtered from behind by opponents in the Soviet regime. His 4 sons want to avenge him.
 

Commentaries and bibliography
 
A Red Western from Lithuania voted as the best film of 1966 by readers of the Soviet Screen film magazine. Intended to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the establishment of communism in Lithuania, it actually showcases one of the first anti-Soviet voices.
At the end of 1965, the young Lithuanian director Vitautas Zalakiavichus came to Moscow with his new film No One Wanted to Die. Everybody knew that Zalakiavichus’ film would be about the 'Forest Brothers', the anti-communist partisans who operated in Lithuania (and other Baltic states) during and after World War II. But no one expected an anti-Soviet film. At first sight No One Wanted to Die is a typical Soviet film. Communists and peasants are good; Forest Brothers are bad. The plot is about the revenge of the sons of a village chairman, who is killed by guerrillas. But the main miracle of this film is the choice to make it as a Western, which allowed Zalakiavichus to tell the truth about the Forest Brothers. The film's title states a perfectly clear message, given to the audience with typical Western landscapes and brutal masculine protagonists.
(http://www.filmfestivalrotterdam.com/en/films/niekas-nenorejo-mirti/)

Selected in the following festivals or events :
- Rotterdam International Film Festival, Rotterdam (Netherlands), 2011
- Era New Horizons IFF, Wroclaw (Poland), 2011