A coming-of-age documentary about girls in the Lithuanian army
When military conscription was renewed in Lithuania a couple of years ago, several women also signed in to volunteer for the army. Marija Stonyte's debut documentary tells the stories of three heroines who live and train on an isolated military base among 600 men. The reasons why each of them ended up there are completely different. One of the girls wants to start a new life, the other is seeking love, the third one is simply trying to prove that she is also capable of defending her country from a possible threat of attack from Russia. However, their romantic ideas about the military profession soon begin to collapse under the pressure of harsh reality. "Gentle Warriors" is, in fact, a quiet coming-of-age drama, which unfolds not in the most familiar space. Exhausting training, many kilometers of march-races, medical training, and the barracks life of girls, absolute strangers on this masculine territory, are captured in maximum detail. Stonyte does not make a special emphasis on the obvious opposition of “masculine” and “feminine” - the whole struggle unfolds only within the heroines themselves. This is a struggle for their own beliefs, independence, and the right to be happy - and it can be the most brutal and the most gentle at the same time.
Original language: Lithuanian Subtitles: Belarusian | English