IN DIALOGUE: CONTEMPORARY LITHUANIAN LITERATURE AND CINEMA
Meeting with writers Lina Simutytė, Virginija Kulvinskaitė and Sotera Kupinaitė
8 November, Saturday| 16:00| Sputnik KinoBar | Free entry
For the first time, Lithuanian writers and filmmakers come together at Sputnik Kinobar to present their own curated evening — a meeting point of contemporary literature and cinema, of text and image, of imagination and translation.
The presentation will be followed by screenings of two short films inspired by Lithuanian short stories:
“Paskutinis sniegas” (The Last Snow), dir. Sotera Kupinaitė; 2025, 15 min.
„Hablo dėsnis” (Hubble’s Law), dir. Arnas Balčiūnas; 2024, 18 min.
Both films are based on stories by Virginija Kulvinskaitė and Lina Simutytė, whose collections “Keturi / Vier” and “Miesto šventė / Das Stadtfest” were translated into German by Markus Roduner and published by Klak Verlag.
After the screenings, a conversation will unfold — about the exchange between words and moving images, about creative trust and transformation, and about what it means to bring Lithuanian literature into new languages and screens.
Duration: 1h 20min
Guests presenting:
Lina Simutytė is a prose writer, screenwriter, editor, lecturer in film language and creative writing. She is the author of the short story collection “The Town Festival” (Kauko laiptai, 2020) and the forthcoming novel “The Red Album” (Tyto alba). Simutytė graduated from the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre with a bachelor’s degree in cinema dramaturgy, has also studied Intermedial Literary Studies at Vilnius University. Simutytė’s debut book was included among the top five prose works in the “Book of the Year” campaign and received both Jurga Ivanauskaitė Literary Prize and the Lithuanian Ministry of Culture’s Young Artist
Award. Her writing has been translated into English, German, Dutch, Georgian, Polish, and Latvian, and featured in international literary anthologies. She has completed writing residencies and internships in Iceland, Sweden, Finland, the Netherlands, Georgia, Latvia.
Virginija Kulvinskaitė is a writer, translator, editor, literary critic and lecturer in literary theory and history.
She graduated from Vilnius University with Doctor of Philosophy degree. Her PhD thesis focused on the relationship between an author’s biography and their work. Kulvinskaite’s poetry collection “Doppelganger” (Naujas vardas, 2017) was included in the Most Creative Book of the Year list in 2018. Autofictional novel “when i was a malalietka” (Kitos knygos, 2019) was included in the Most Creative Book of the Year list and the “Book of the Year” shortlist. Short story collection “Four” (Kitos knygos, 2023) was included in the “Book of the Year” longlist and the “Book + Cinema” list of the most cinematic books. Her writing has been translated into English, German, French, Ukrainian, Belarussian, Latvian and other languages, and featured in international literary anthologies.
Sotera Kupinaitė is a filmmaker. She studied philosophy at Vilnius University and is currently studying film directing at the KIMO National Film School. In her films, she seeks to portray the presence of evil in everyday life, drawing inspiration from directors such as Jonathan Glazer and Gus Van Sant. Kupinaitė’s documentary “Blue Corner” (2024) was screened at the Kassel Documentary Film and Video Festival (Germany) and the Beldocs International Documentary Film Festival (Serbia).
