One-Day Chronicle

Black & white, 35 mm
Lithuania, 1963, 83 min
Section: Baltic Films

About the film

An old idealistic Communist judge named Rimša is in shock. Someone has killed his good friend Prof. Muratovas. The only witness to the crime is one of the professor’s students. Although the murder goes unsolved, the student isn’t under suspicion. But Rimša doesn’t understand why the young man didn’t at least try to avert danger, and for this he blames him.... Time goes by and the two men meet once again on a plane bound for Leningrad, and the past event is seem in a new light.... According to the filmmaker, the film concerns a moral failure: seemingly innocent indifference.

About the director

Vytautas Žalakevičius (1930-1996) graduated from Moscow’s VGIK film school (1956) and then worked in Vilnius and Moscow, where he also lectured for the Higher Courses for Film Directors. After debuting with One-Day Chronicle (Vienos dienos kronika, 1964), he earned his reputation with the action film Nobody Wanted to Die (Niekas nenoréjo mirti, 1965). While in Moscow he shot the grandiose political film That Sweet Word “Freedom” (Tas saldus žodis-laisvé, 1972), The Centaurs (Kentaurai, 1978) and the psychological drama The Story of a Stranger (Nepažistamo žmogunas pasakojimas, 1980) based on a Chekhov story. In Lithuania he shot the confessional film I’m Sorry (Atsiprašau, 1982, ) and the harsh war drama The Weekend in Hades (Savaitgalis pragare, 1988). He finished his career with an excellent adaptation of Yevgeny Zamyatin’s story "The Flood": The Beast, Rising Out of the Sea (Žvéris, kylantis iš juros, 1992).