diary

Reminiscences of a Journey to Lithuania Film Difficulty Ranking: 4

Have you ever been displaced or exiled from your home? Or simply been away from home for more than a few months? Well you may sympathize with Jonas Mekas when watching this film. Reminiscences of a Journey to Lithuania is a walk in the shoes of a displaced person. It’s the incredibly intimate diary film of Jonas Mekas’ return to Lithuania to see his mother and family after 25 years in exile.

Here’s an example of three minutes from the film.

Why Watch Reminiscences of a Journey to Lithuania?

• To see what makes a great diary film (films like a diary, often shot home video style)
• Experience the life of a displaced person by seeing Mekas’ return from exile, shot mostly from a 1st person perspective
• It’s one of the most intimate films you’ll see (you’ll be transported into Mekas’ life)
• Because it was added to the U.S. National Film Registry because of it’s cultural, aesthetic, and historical significance

The Breakdown

Reminiscences of a Journey to Lithuania is made up of three parts:

1. Shots of Mekas and his brother in Brooklyn, New York from just after they were moved there from displacement camps in Germany
2. Footage of their return to Lithuania after 25 years in exile
3. Hamburg, the place they were both detained in Nazi German slave labour camps after fleeing Lithuania

The most time is spent on part 2, shooting their reunion with their mother and family after 25 years in exile. But because of the way the film is shot, it never really feels like they were home.

How the Style of the Film Emphasizes their Displacement

There are a few things you’ll notice straight away when watching Reminiscences of a Journey to Lithuania.

1. There are a lot of cuts! The entire film is made up of short shots, so you never really have time to concentrate on one image.
2. There’s no diegetic sound (ie. sound that comes directly from the film shown, apart from two singing scenes). All the sound comes from the melancholic piano soundtrack or from Mekas’ brother’s narration.
3. As above, there’s also no dialogue. The whole film is narrated by Mekas’ brother.

When these three stylistic elements are combined in the film, it makes everything appear to be a memory from the past. Each short shot is like another memory of their former life in Lithuania.

If you’re not convinced, think of your childhood. Can you actually visualize a 3 minute long memory from your childhood with all the emotions you felt without relying on old VHS footage? If you can, you’re gifted. If not, your memory is probably composed of a load of snippets of things that made you laugh, smells, tastes, and people’s faces. This is exactly how Reminiscences of a Journey to Lithuania is composed, with short snippets of fresh fruit, family faces, and funny memories.

So even though the film is from the present, it looks like a distant memory that can never be relived. The style matches their inability to return home, after fleeing the country as Nazis and Soviets advanced in WW2.

Conclusion

Because the film appears like a distant memory it’s pretty melancholic and nostalgic all the way through. The sounds of the piano and crackling film also don’t help to lift the mood.

Melancholy aside, it’s no surprise that this film was added to the U.S. National Film Registry by the Library of Congress. It intimately depicts the experiences of a displaced person abroad and returning home. No other filmmaker allows the audience to get as close to the displaced person experience as Jonas Mekas. For this, and because it’s a beautifully made film, you should watch Reminiscences of a Journey to Lithuania.