Born in 1917, Algirdas Julius Greimas grew up with the modern state of Lithuania. He was one of the first to display Western culture to Lithuania; he was a member of the Nazi resistance; in Soviet times, he chose to become a refugee; he is one of the first people to make semiotics a science; and he also created Lithuania's post-war revival strategy. Regarding Lithuania’s 100 year history and his life, he said: “My intellectual path is explained through my origin and the events that occurred during my youth in Lithuania. To be a Semiotician is to raise the question of meaning!”

Beržinis is known internationally as a documentary film maker and Holocaust researcher. He has partnered over the years with the BBC, the United States Holocaust Museum, the Vilna Gaon Jewish State Museum of Lithuania, Yad Vashem and other international bodies, in addition to dozens of Holocaust survivors. His Holocaust documentaries include Farewell Jerusalem of Lithuania (1994), The Road to Treblinka (1997) and Yudel’s Unwritten Diary (2004).

In his new documentary Greimas. The System of Bolts Beržinis interviews on camera A.J. Greimas’ wife Teresa Mary Keane and his old friends such as Italian musicologist and academic Paolo Fabbri, semiotician Eric Landowski, professor of Semiotics and French Literature Denis Bertrand and professor of Semiotics and notable literary critic Kęstutis Nastopka.

The film is produced by Beržinis’ film studio Kopa and supported by the Lithuanian Film Centre with a 360,00 EUR grant.

The theatrical release is planned for 2018.

Production information:

Kopa
Saulius Beržinis
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