"Scilli wants to be human" is a theater project of a hybrid form based on the play "Mountain pose" by the artist and writer Paulina Pukytė, in which, with the help of absurdity and satire, it talks about the relationships between people as "brainwashing" each other. In today's postmodern language, restrictive stereotypes that support gender inequality and other "traditions" are criticized here, as well as the position of a woman (especially a woman creator) in a patriarchal sexist world. The characters of the play are well-known characters of antiquity, who with all their cultural baggage found themselves in a different, unusual context.
Scili, from the myth of the ship-sinking monsters Scili and Charybdis, feels stuck in that "mountain pose" of hers. It no longer wants to be an immobile rock with only that one function, albeit a powerful one. Scilė wants to be a man (an allusion to the title of the film "Adomas wants to be a man", which became a classic of Lithuanian cinema). But what does it mean to be human? What does it take to become one? What are you risking? Scilė begins traditionally, with a visit to the "coucher" (life teacher) Kirkė. Odysseus, traveling through the country, and the "storyteller" Homer also taught us how to live. But will this be enough for Scili, who also embodies other mythic women?
The director Gabrielė Tuminaitė, who invited video artist Aneta Bublytė and cameraman Eitvydas Doškės to help her during the quarantine, began to explore the similarities and differences between theater and cinema with this play, to experiment with the possibilities of their synthesis. According to G. Tuminaitė, P. Pukytė's conceptual texts are especially suitable for this kind of hybrid theater form.
"This feminist absurdist play, as is characteristic of the author, is unconventional, extremely specific in its form, full of various cultural references, so when working with this material you need to turn your head a lot," says G. Tuminaitė. The environment of people (her reaction, comments) is very important here, because the entire text of the play is constructed from the "garbage" of our language. The comments and avalanche of opinions of others overshadow the creative force and poetic expression, threatening to drown it and vulgarize it. So the question is raised here: is it easy and is it at all possible in such an environment not only to create, but also to survive, to be a person? Was this what Scylla expected, turning from a rock-monster into a human-poet?
In her directing work, G. Tuminaitė draws inspiration from the performing for camera genre born in America in the 1960s and 1970s and "vintage" television performances, as well as the film noir aesthetics, which she tries to apply on stage. In this way, the theme of time - the change of everything and the repetition of everything - is highlighted, as well as the issue of the importance of perspective, point of view. The same characters who appear on stage live interact with themselves in the film (with their past or with their imagination?). But on stage they are already different, they have changed a lot. Or maybe they just think that they have changed, but in fact they have basically remained the same? The image becomes apocalyptic, prophetic, or perhaps warning. Or maybe it just seems that way to us? Where is reality - here or there?
Fimo's creative team: director - Gabrielė Tuminaitė, video director - Aneta Bublytė, cinematographer - Eitvydas Doškus, editing directors - Gintas Smilga, Maryna Maykovska (Ukraine), sound director - Jonas Jocys, music - Fausto Latėnas and Mantos Mockaus, artist-consultant – Vilma Galeckaitė, lighting artist – Mykolas Olšauskas, colorist – Justinas Vencius, make-up artist – Dalia Žakytė-Bučienė, lighting designers – Ignas Rulevičius, Jonas Vološčenka, Simas Plytnikas, sound operator – Skaidius Gilys.
