SYNDROMES OF MIMICRY/ experimental film/ 2017 / 18min / dir. Anastasija Pirozenko

“What could possibly link a village nightclub where a musician mindlessly recites popular Western melodies, a mute black man delivering flowers in a Hussar uniform, and a yoga class attracting people in search of religious identity? This is the forced march towards westernisation of the former Soviet bloc countries as they step into this huge civilising group that we call “Europe”. In cinematographic vignettes that draw a fine line between humour and banality, the filmmaker proposes a documentary satire on what she names the Syndromes of Mimicry. Meant to pervade the contemporary ethos of Baltic societies, and day-to-day Lithuanian life. From syndromes, which act like the ambivalent signs of a voluntary self-colonisation (identifying with the values of the West to be better accepted by it) and from a compensatory reaction of imitation through which, a new national identity will, perhaps, be built.”

- text by Emmanuel Chicon - Visions du Reel programmer

SELECTED FESTIVALS / SCREENINGS

2022 Busan International Video Art Festival, KOR 
20219 Internationale Kurzfilmtage Oberhausen, DE 
2019 Bucharest International Experimental Film Festiva
2019 Baltanakts, Cultural Forum, Riga
2019 In-Between State of Mind, screenings at Freehome, Berlin; SURVIVAL KIT.lv, Riga; SCCA-Ljubljana; The Easttopics, Budapest; MNAC, Bucharest
2018 Filmets Badalona Film Festival, ES
2018 Litauisches Kino Goes Berlin
2018 Reykjavík International Film Festival, IS
2018 VideoEx, International Experimental Film & Video Festival Zurich, CH
2018 Asolo Art Film Festival, Asolo, IT
2018 Lucca Film Festival e Europa Cinema, IT 
2018 “Action at a Distance”, artist talk, Corridoor Project Space, Amsterdam
2017 Visions du Reel, Nyon, CH
2017 ZubrOFFka, International Short Film Festival, Bialystok, PL 
2017 Montreal Int. Documentary Film Festival, CA.
2017 Lago Film Fest, Lago, IT
2017 Vilnius International Short Film Festival, Vilnius
2017 The Art of Transition Symposium, artist talk, Cinetol, Amsterdam.