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Video: Soviet Foreigners: How the Fates of the Stars of the Baltic Cinema Developed
2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55
In Soviet times, the Baltics were considered almost abroad. There was a completely different culture, special traditions, unique architecture, and rare films were filmed there, unlike everything else. The Baltic actors themselves resembled foreigners whom they often had to play. They were popular, they were recognized on the streets, their careers and lives were followed. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Baltic actors remained abroad. But interest in the life of Soviet foreigners has not faded to this day.
Donatas Banionis
He might never have gone on stage if his parents had not instilled in him a love of art from childhood. They were simple workers, but they combined work with amateur performances and had a vocal gift. Donatas Banios received the profession of a ceramist, combining studies with participation in a drama club. At the age of 17, the future actor moved from Kaunas to Panevezys and was immediately accepted into the troupe of the drama theater under the direction of Juozas Miltinis. Three years later, Donatas Juozovich was already a graduate of a studio at the theater.
Almost his entire life was connected with the Panevezys Theater. In the 1980s, he was its chief director and artistic director, and served as an actor until the early 2000s, when the law on pension reform was passed.
Popularity came to him after filming Vytautas Zhalakevicius' film Nobody Wanted to Die, and popular love fell on Donatas Banionis after the role of Ladeinikov's scout in the Dead Season film. In total, there are more than 60 films in his filmography. Donatas Juozovich has lived all his life with his wife Ona Konkulevichiute-Banyonene, together they raised two sons. He passed away at 90 after suffering a stroke.
READ ALSO: Donatas Banionis and Ona Banyonene: A Marriage Out of Pity and 60 Years of Unconditional Happiness >>
Via Artmane
She was born in 1929 in a peasant family. After the death of her husband, who died before the birth of her daughter, the mother of the future actress remarried, and the girl's relationship with her stepfather did not work out.
But moving to Riga at the age of 15 abruptly changed the whole life of Vija Artmane. She began acting in films, lived a vibrant creative life, played in the theater for many years, and was engaged in social activities. While working in the film "Native Blood" she met Yevgeny Matveyev. The feelings played on the set turned into real life. However, the actors were not free and did not find it possible to destroy their families.
After the collapse of the USSR, Vija Artmane lost her home over her head and lived out her life at her daughter's dacha. She continued to act in films, but the health of the actress was already undermined. Viya Fritsevna passed away at the age of 79, having managed to convert to Orthodoxy shortly before the end of her life.
READ ALSO: From All-Union Glory to Death in Oblivion: The Tragic Fate of Wii Artmane >>
Ivar Kalnins
Almost all women of the Soviet Union loved him. Although in reality he might never have become an actor. Parents insisted on getting a working profession, and Ivar himself was seriously fond of music. He was still a student at the Latvian State Conservatory when Ivars Kalnins began to be invited to the cinema. And even the actor was admitted to the troupe of the Art Theater two years before receiving his diploma.
He starred in almost a hundred films and today, at the age of 70, continues an active creative life: he plays in two theaters, acts in films, and often appears on television.
In his youth, Ivar Kalninsh dreamed of one great love for life, but fate decreed in its own way. He met his woman after 50 years, having previously married and divorced twice. The actor is still in great demand today and is not going to rest on the laurels of his popularity.
READ ALSO: Ivars Kalnins: Three happy marriages and the love of a lifetime for the most popular Latvian actor in the USSR >>
Juozas Budraitis
He was born into a peasant family, and at school he participated in amateur performances, although he did not even think about an actor's career. Juozas Budraitis was preparing to become a lawyer and entered the relevant faculty of Vilnius University, but a lucky chance intervened in his plans. A third-year student was invited to star in the film "Nobody Wanted to Die", and after the overwhelming success of the film, Juozas Budraitis forever linked his life with art. He graduated from the university in absentia, as he acted a lot in films, and later studied at the Higher Courses for Scriptwriters and Directors.
On the stage of the Kaunas Theater, he played many bright roles, and in the second half of the 1990s he became a cultural attaché at the Lithuanian Embassy in Russia. On account of Juozas Budraitis more than one hundred played roles in films, but his filmography is constantly replenished, as he continues to act today.
Lilita Ozolinya
Her childhood dreams were always associated only with cinema, and at the age of 10 she came to her first screen tests. The girl did not fit the director of the film "Echo", and Lilita Ozolina herself, after the failure, began to seriously think about medicine. However, the craving for the stage turned out to be much stronger. In 1965 she was already a member of the National Film Actor's Studio in Riga, and a year later Lilitu was enrolled in the troupe of the Art Theater in Riga.
She has been acting in films since 1967, but the whole country learned the name of the actress at the time of the release of Alois Brench's picture "The Long Road in the Dunes". Subsequently, she received many proposals for directors, and after the collapse of the Soviet Union, she began to pay more attention to the theater, but did not refuse to shoot in films, when there was such an opportunity.
Today Lilita Ozolina is 70 years old, she lives with her daughter-businessman in Riga.
Juozas Kiselyus
His name is firmly associated with the name of Arthur from "The Long Road in the Dunes". But the viewer might never see this talented actor on the screen, because he himself did not even know about his abilities, dreaming of the work of a forester. Already about to apply to the institute, where forestry workers were trained, Juozas Kiselyus suddenly changes his mind and enters the acting institute at the Vilnius Conservatory.
He managed to star in 18 films, and then his life was cut short. The actor died at 42 from a complex heart defect.
During the USSR For the Soviet people, the Baltics were “almost abroad”. As soon as one was there, it seemed that he was in a world somewhat different from the Soviet reality. What did life look like in “overseas” Estonia more than half a century ago?
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