The Paradox of Lithuanian national cinema
ENMy main objective here is to investigate the notion of Lithuanian cinema in both socialist and post-socialist contexts. When discussed at all, Lithuanian film is referred to most often in discussions of Eastern Bloc or Soviet cinema. More often, however, it is not discussed at all. To be certain, very little has been written on Lithuanian film outside of Lithuania since the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991. However, if we take a closer look at the film’s cultural circulation in Lithuania, we find a scenario that calls for no less that a rethinking of our understanding of the notion of ‘national cinema’. Briefly, my theoretical argument is that Lithuanian national cinema per se existed and functioned while Lithuania as a nation-state did not. To use the oft-quoted phrase of Benedict Anderson (1991), Lithuanian film was a site of ‘imagined community’ at a time when Soviet power strove to maintain firm control over its Baltic republic. Further, I argue that upon the regaining of independence in an increasingly globalised context, this national cinema collapsed from both internal and external causes. Not only did the national need for representations and re-circulations of the nation dwindle after re-independence, but international interest in the Cold War ‘Other’ did as well.
