Kristina Buožytė (; born October 9, 1982) is a Lithuanian film director, screenwriter and producer. In her early films she focused on women, explored their inner world and depicted them using fantasy elements. Her science fiction film '' Vanishing Waves'' (original title ''Aurora'') is described as a hypnotic, sensual sci-fi experience and sexually explicit sci-fi tale which was rewarded with 22 international awards in

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...

and North America. Her and Bruno Samper’s latest science fiction bio-fantasy ''Vesper'' is described as melancholic fairytale.

Career

Kristina Buožytė was born in

Klaipėda Klaipėda (; ; german: Memel; pl, Kłajpeda; russian: Клайпеда; sgs, Klaipieda) is a city in Lithuania on the Baltic Sea coast. The capital of the eponymous county, it is the third largest city and the only major seaport in Lithuania ...

, Lithuania. Since her adolescence she admired fantasy literature and attended theatre classes at Klaipeda Youth Theatre wanting to become an actress or a theatre director. In 2001 Buožytė entered

Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre The Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre in Vilnius, Lithuania, is a state-supported conservatory that trains students in music, theatre, and multimedia arts. History Composer Juozas Naujalis founded a music school in 1919 in Kaunas. This ...

Vilnius Vilnius ( , ; see also other names) is the capital and largest city of Lithuania, with a population of 592,389 (according to the state register) or 625,107 (according to the municipality of Vilnius). The population of Vilnius's functional urb ...

, but there was no course for theatre directing at that time, so she started studying Film and TV directing instead and got immersed in the cinema world. The film-maker graduated the academy with a bachelor's degree in 2005 and master's degree in 2008 both in Film and TV directing. During her years at the academy Buožytė created a number of short feature films, actively participated a
''Summer Media Studio''
in

Juodkrantė Juodkrantė (literally: ''Black Shore'', Kursenieki: ''Šatnūrta'' or ''Šatnūrte'', German: ''Schwarzort'') is a Lithuanian seaside resort village located on the Curonian Spit with a permanent population of about 720 people. A part of Neringa ...

, Lithuania, where she was awarded with the Best Film Marketing for ''Change the Record'' in 2005 and the Best Documentary Screenwriter for ''Send Me a Letter'' in 2006 as well as working in several film and TV companies as editor, script supervisor and director. Buožytė's first notable piece is the bachelor's degree diploma short film ''Change the Record.'' It is a comedic story about the young women who is longing for romantic feelings and involves in a relationship with a tiny man who appears while the vinyl records plays. The film was selected for the student film festival ''Cinema Mines'05'' (''Kino minos'05'') and received positive feedbacks from both critics and cinema professionals. Lithuanian cinema critic Skirmantas Valiulis drew correlation between Buožytė's ''Change the Record'' and

Pedro Almodóvar Pedro Almodóvar Caballero (; (often known simply as Almodóvar) born 25 September 1949) is a Spanish filmmaker. His films are marked by melodrama, irreverent humour, bold colour, glossy décor, quotations from popular culture, and complex narra ...

's ''

Talk To Her ''Talk to Her'' ( es, Hable con ella) is a 2002 Spanish drama written and directed by Pedro Almodóvar, and starring Javier Cámara, Darío Grandinetti, Leonor Watling, Geraldine Chaplin, and Rosario Flores. The film follows two men who form an ...

'' where a tiny man engages in sexual activity.

''The Collectress (Kolekcionierė)''

Kristina Buožytė's master's degree diploma film ''The Collectress'' is about a young woman Gailė (Gabija Ryškuvienė) who lost her ability to feel the emotions after her father's death. In order to regain the feelings Gailė has to film the situations and watch them again. She starts to construct sexual situations, thus 'the collection' grows. According to the film-maker, the idea for the screenplay came when searching for the reason why people react to emotions shown on the screen more intensively than to those in real life. From its original plot itself to the visual depiction of the essential instincts, ''The Collectress'' was review as a

Freudian Sigmund Freud ( , ; born Sigismund Schlomo Freud; 6 May 1856 – 23 September 1939) was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis, a clinical method for evaluating and treating pathologies explained as originating in conflicts i ...

, brave and controversial film which contributes a new and fresh piece in Lithuanian cinema. The film was warmly welcomed internationally: it was shown in more than 30 film festivals in Europe ( Karlovy Vary,

Pusan Busan (), officially known as is South Korea's most populous city after Seoul, with a population of over 3.4 million inhabitants. Formerly romanized as Pusan, it is the economic, cultural and educational center of southeastern South Korea, ...

Valencia Film Festival Valencia ( va, València) is the capital of the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Valencian Community, Valencia and the Municipalities of Spain, third-most populated municipality in Spain, with 791,413 inhabitants. It is ...

, Meinheim, Kinoshock (in

Anapa Anapa (russian: Ана́па, ) is a town in Krasnodar Krai, Russia, located on the northern coast of the Black Sea near the Sea of Azov. Population: History The area around Anapa was settled in antiquity. It was originally a major seaport ( ...

, Russia),

North Africa North Africa, or Northern Africa is a region encompassing the northern portion of the African continent. There is no singularly accepted scope for the region, and it is sometimes defined as stretching from the Atlantic shores of Mauritania in ...

( Cairo Film Festival) and

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the sout ...

(

São Paulo São Paulo (, ; Portuguese for ' Saint Paul') is the most populous city in Brazil, and is the capital of the state of São Paulo, the most populous and wealthiest Brazilian state, located in the country's Southeast Region. Listed by the Ga ...

). Buožytė received The Best Film Award in Lithuanian Cinema and TV Awards Silver Crane (

Sidabrinė gervė Sidabrinė gervė (Silver Crane) are the Lithuanian film industry awards for best actors, directors and films. The annual awards were presented from 2008 on by AVAKA (''audiovizualinių kūrinių autorių teisių asociacija''), the (national) A ...

) and the Best Director Award at the Kinoshock film festival in Russia in 2008. The international success of the film-maker's debut opened possibilities for her further career.

''Vanishing Waves (Aurora)''

Buožytė's second feature film ''Vanishing Waves'' is about the emotionally remote scientist Lucas (Marius Jampolskis) who participates in neurological experiment where he successfully contacts a young comatose woman named Aurora (Jurga Jutaitė). Lucas subconsciously communicates with Aurora's suppressed personality, breaks the rules and lies to the superiors about their relationship. Because of the uncertain boundaries between dream and reality ''Vanishing Waves'' is often compared with

Christopher Nolan Christopher Edward Nolan (born 30 July 1970) is a British-American filmmaker. Known for his lucrative Hollywood blockbusters with complex storytelling, Nolan is considered a leading filmmaker of the 21st century. His films have grossed $5&nb ...

’s ''

Inception ''Inception'' is a 2010 science fiction action film written and directed by Christopher Nolan, who also produced the film with Emma Thomas, his wife. The film stars Leonardo DiCaprio as a professional thief who steals information by infi ...

'', except when Christopher Nolan's films are called sterile and sexless, Buožytė gives the audiences an immersive depiction of unconscious dreamworld as a surreal and explicit psychosexual smorgasbord that would make Freud blush. ''Vanishing Waves'' is also compared to Stanley Kubrick's ''

Eyes Wide Shut ''Eyes Wide Shut'' is a 1999 erotic mystery psychological drama film directed, produced, and co-written by Stanley Kubrick. It is based on the 1926 novella '' Traumnovelle'' (''Dream Story'') by Arthur Schnitzler, transferring the story's set ...

'' because of its soft-core sex scenes and

Tarkovsky Andrei Arsenyevich Tarkovsky ( rus, Андрей Арсеньевич Тарковский, p=ɐnˈdrʲej ɐrˈsʲenʲjɪvʲɪtɕ tɐrˈkofskʲɪj; 4 April 1932 – 29 December 1986) was a Russian filmmaker. Widely considered one of the greates ...

's '' Solaris'' because of its symbolic titular planet. Meanwhile the director points out that film explores the psychological aspects of the relationships - all the feelings, the attitudes, the sufferings and the pleasures begin in human's head, thus the main focus is on the

egocentrism Egocentrism is the inability to differentiate between self and other. More specifically, it is the inability to accurately assume or understand any perspective other than one's own. Egocentrism is found across the life span: in infancy, early chi ...

of the main character and its transformation during the experiences of desire, pleasure and love. It is the first science fiction film made in Lithuania and the first Lithuanian film distributed in North America. ''Vanishing Waves'' was named the Best European Fantasy Film in 2012 and received 21 other awards of which 15 went to Kristina Buožytė for her creative work as a screenwriter and director. Buožytė's films fulfilled with eroticism, philosophical searching, and visual splendor makes her new provocative and exited European talent and it deserves to be noticed by cinephiles around the world.

FilmographyLithuanian Film Centre
Artists Profile: Kristina Buožytė
Lfc.lt. Retrieved March 8, 2014.

Feature films

Short films

Awards and nominations

References

External links

* * Lithuanian Film Centre
''Artists profile: Kristina Buožytė''
Lfc.lt * Kewley, Pat (July 24, 2013)
''Vanishing Waves Is an Erotic and Surreal Sci-Fi Head Trip''
PopMatters.com * Sélavy, Virginie (May 13, 2013). Record of:
Kristinia Buozyte on Vanishing Waves
''. Electricsheepmagazine.co.uk * Wilkins, Budd (July 26, 2013)
''DVD REVIEW: Vanishing Waves''
SlantMagazine.com * Scheck, Frank (March 17, 2013)
''Vanishing Waves'': Film Review
The Hollywood Reporter. *
Change the Record
' video (part 1) *
Change the Record
'video (part 2) * Kulvietis, Marijus
''Recenzija: Kolekcionierė''
Kinas.info. * ''Kino minų'' informacija (November 15, 2005)
''KINO MINOS'05 - profesionalūs lietuviško kino žaidimai''
Lithuanian Film Centre. Lfc.lt. {{DEFAULTSORT:Buozyte, Kristina Women screenwriters Lithuanian film directors Lithuanian women film directors 1982 births Living people Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre alumni People from Klaipėda