WIDE picked up the gay romantic drama The Lawyer, the third film by Lithuanian director Romas Zabarauskas, prior to its screening at the European Film Market in Berlin. The film, about a man who meets a Syrian refugee stuck in Belgrade, was shot in Vilnius and Belgrade, produced by the director’s own company Naratyvas, which teamed up with Serbia‘s Film Road Production for the Serbian shoot. The 315,000 EUR film was supported by the Lithuanian Film Centre and benefited from the Lithuanian Tax Incentive scheme. The film was shot in English.

Next on the list is the Lithuanian/Irish young teen drama The Castle / Pilis, the second feature film by Lina Lužytė. The central character is a 13-year-old Lithuanian girl who moves to Ireland with her mother and grandmother, but refuses to give up on her dream of being a singer and performing at the mysterious Castle. It was produced by Kęstutis Drazdauskas through Lithuania’s ARTBOX in coproduction with David Collins through Samson Films (Ireland). The film was supported by the Lithuanian Film Centre, Screen Ireland and the Irish public service broadcaster, RTE, with a budget estimated at 1.4 m EUR. It was shot in Lithuanian and English.

WIDE is also selling the Polish tragicomedy I Never Cry directed by Piotr Domalewski and produced by Akson Studio. The story is about a 17-year-old girl who has to bring the body of her deceased father back to Poland after he dies on a construction site. The film was presented at Connecting Cottbus in 2018 with an estimated budget of 1.3 m EUR and support from the Polish Film Institute and the Mazovia Film Fund. It was supported by Eurimages as a Polish/Irish coproduction and was presented at the Cannes Marché du Film in 2019.