You Can't Escape Lithuania

By: Amos Lassen

After his star actress, Indre (Irina Lavrinovic), murders her mother, filmmaker Romas (Denisas Kolomyckis) plans her escape from Lithuania. Romas' sexy Mexican boyfriend Carlos (Adrian Escobar) reluctantly helps them. While on the run, Romas begins shooting an improvised experimental film of the trip on his smartphone.
At the crossroad between Europe and Russia, the Baltic countries are going experiencing a strong debate on the question of LGBT rights. In Estonia, civil partnerships have been legalized and Latvia's foreign minister has just come out while Lithuania seems to have gone in the opposite direction. The Protection of Minors law that is similar to the infamous anti-gay Russian laws, was passed in 2010 but only recently started to be applied and the government has censored two pro-LGBT ads on TV as well as a fairytale book including gay and lesbian love stories.
At the present time in Lithuania, there are no realistic prospects for gay partnership or trans-inclusive laws and censorship is very strong. Politicians seem to be getting only worse ? and instead of trying to solve the issues of discrimination, bullying, lack of sexual education and now the people have begun to react. "You Can't Escape Lithuania" is a metaphor of the LGBT community's current situation and by telling the story of filmmaker Zabarauskas himself by his attempt to help actress Indre to escape Lithuania after murdering her own mother. You Can't Escape Lithuania is a feature film about a fictional version of Romas Zabarauskas, a gay filmmaker from Lithuania.
Romas also takes Carlos along for the ride during the escape. As they travel, Romas gives Indre an ultimatum: if she doesn't agree to perform in one last experimental film, he will turn her over to the police. While this is a sexy film, its stylish and the actors are excellent all around.