The Book Smuggler (tik lietuviškai)

After the failed 1863 uprising by Lithuanian and Polish nobles, the Russian imperial government banned use of the Latin alphabet and attempted to convert Lithuanian to the Cyrillic alphabet.  The ban stayed in place until 1904 and forbade printing, distributing or possessing Lithuanian language books and other printed materials with the Latin alphabet.  During the forty year ban, books were printed in Prussia and smuggled into Lithuania.

A new film, Knygešys [Book Smuggler] premiered at a recent film festival and is now available online.  Unfortunately, it does not have English subtitles so only my Lithuanian-speaking readers will be able to understand it.  However, it is a fairly pedantic storyline and non-Lithuanian speakers will probably be able to figure out the plot.  It’s only about 30 minutes and the cinematography is beautiful, so take a look.

You can watch it here.