Ekskursantė

Kamilė's viewpoint

Today I would like to talk about the film that is called ,,The excursionist“. This film is made by Andrius Juzėnas.
After World War II, Europe was divided in two parts and the state of Lithuania found itself on the eastern side of the Iron Curtain. In the 1950s, under the yoke of Stalinism, hundreds of thousands of Lithuanians were deported to gulags in the Soviet Union. So this film is about a Marija, an orphaned eleven-year-old girl who escapes from a transport train and sets out on a 6000 mile trek back home posing as a Russian and keeping her true identity secret in the face of suspicion and cruelty.
At first I had pretty low expectations for the movie but I was pleasantly surprised how good this movie turned out to be. The story line is not fast-paced but it is very involving and generally looks very believable because it is based on a true story. I had no time to get bored and I can say that this film opened my heart because seeing this movie felt like a rare experience. It differed from the Hollywood dramas that I am used to. It felt like I haven't wasted a minute because what I saw was filled with kindness and human dignity - qualities rarely seen on screen these days. Although I'm not much of a sensitive girl, this exceptional work brought tears to my eyes several times.

What touched me so much, were the sincere connections between a girl and people she met along her way. I was surprised to see the horror of the Soviet regime: when people who were considered enemies of the people were thrown into the middle of the square desecrated. Interestingly, there was no fear of showing violence. I was surprised that some people were trying to help the girl. I was also amazed at how well the images of nature, places, costumes, scenery were conveyed. It kind of took us back to those gloomy times. The two languages used in the film provided even more reality. Marija's great desire to return to Lithuania is still beautiful. It causes a feeling of patriotism, love of homeland. Not only the journey of survival was shown here, but also the maturity of Mary, the transformation into a woman. Marija's acquaintance with each person allowed her to get to know the world and all its evil and goodness more quickly.
I can say that this is a touching story, a lovely young actress and remarkable supporting actors make this movie attractive. I loved it and I would recommend anyone who likes drama and history to watch this film.

Justina's ideas

The film is based on the true story of an eleven-year-old girl from Lithuania who managed to escape from the departed freight train transporting her and her family to Siberia. However, she lost her entire family.
I think this movie is really worth everyone’s attention because what that girl had to experience is scary. The film is highly addictive and it is interesting to watch how people lived in those days, how they survived under horrible circumstances.
After traveling 6,000 km to Lithuania, which was her dearest home, the 11-year-old girl met kind and generous people who really did a lot to sacrifice themselves to achieve the girl’s goal.

Simona's approach

A week ago I watched the film named “Excursionist”.
At first I thought this will be a very boring film, because I wondered how the Lithuanian language homework could be this interesting. But after 10 minutes of watching the film my opinion changed and I started enjoying it very much.
This film is about an 11-year-old girl who runs away from the train which deports Lithuanians to special camps in SSRS occupation times, where there is no chance to survive, but with her mom’s help the girl runs away from the train. She is in the middle of nowhere and all she knows is to find her way back to her homeland, Lithuania. She has to endure a lot of hassle, violence, betrayal. In her way back home, she meets a lot of different people, but not all of them are good, some of them desire to help her; however, some of them want to hurt her or report her.
So she travels to a lot of different places, but none of them are familiar to her. But after all she gone through with some people help she finally finds her way back to Lithuania. She is a very brave and persevering girl at the age like hers.
I recommend others, who still haven’t watched this film, to watch it as fast as possible because they don’t know what they lose.

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