The once cult novel became a literary bomb, the reverberations of which reverberated through the decades, and today the book inspires today's artists. Donatas Ulvydas matured the idea to remind Lithuania about R. Gavel's novel "Vilniaus Pokeris" for 6 years. And it succeeded! Vilniaus Pokeris is a synthesis of cinema and music, which opened its doors to the general public on the occasion of Vilnius' 700th birthday and presented the artwork "Vilniaus Pokeris".
Thus, the novel of the important Lithuanian writer Ričardas Gavelis became music and cinema.
According to the director, Ričardas Gavelis, while describing the jazz concert at that time, said that the music and musicians at the Vilnius poker concert (that's what the concert was called, that's why the book is named like that) look like the power of Vilnius, but Ričardas Gavelis' work is important not only for the people of Vilnius, but for all Lithuanians. "This is exactly what the musicians of our concert look like - when listening, it seems that the power of Vilnius should sound like this - brave, spontaneous, sometimes nostalgic, but always from the heart, from the guts, not giving up and looking only forward", says D. Ulvydas. This character trait also applies to Donatas Ulvydas, a child of Šiauliai himself.
"That was my goal," says the director, talking about the future screen adaptation of the novel, "not to reproduce every note of R. Gavel's stream of consciousness, but to give Vilnius Poker a 21st century face, but Gavel is Gavel and the film's creative process this time started the other way around, with music ".
During the first concert in Vilnius, D. Ulvydas recorded scenes for his film, so those gathered were not only spectators, but also actors of the mass scenes of the future film. The audience could also feel like cameramen - everyone sent the images of the song "Deadly Dance" filmed with their phones and became co-authors of the clip created by D. Ulvydas for this song. You can watch the clip here: https://youtu.be/UiOMh39rHxg.
During the second concert, Donatus Ulvydas remembered the audience the most: "It was a thousand people who came to the Vilnius cluster, who were so bright and inspiring!" It seems that the true spirit of Vilnius was alive during the concert, because the audience gathered, who love jazz and good literature. This was perhaps the greatest discovery of the concert for me as an author."
"After seeing this event, you get a good culture shock that lasts for several weeks, and you realize that Šiauliai deserves to see the best that is created in Lithuania. The impression is doubly strengthened by the fact that Donatas Ulvydas, a former resident of Šiauliai, is standing at Vilnius Poker, and this correlates with our motto of this year's Šiauliai Nights - "do you know where my roots are?" says the organizer of Šiauliai Nights, Remigijus Ruokis. It is expected that the concert will impress the people of Šiauliai as well, as the organizers are happy to receive many favorable reactions from the members of the music community: "Vilnius JJAZZ Ensemble" is a very important event in the Lithuanian musical world, as it gathered some of the most talented Lithuanian musicians and creators. For me, your music is like a hug for the soul", says Ona Skernevičiūtė, head of the Tamsta music club. "I'm really not a jazz connoisseur, but I think that such a phenomenon as the Vilnius JJAZZ Ensemble has been needed for a long time." At first, the group impresses with its massiveness, then it also involves sound, compositions and multi-layered arrangements. The group already has a lot of hype and positive gossip behind the scenes, which is quite rare for music of this genre in Lithuania", says artist Benas Aleksandravičius, the leader of the group "ba".
