Loznitsa strikes again: in the world of montage film, in the world of archival footage revived by new meanings, the Ukrainian director seems to feel right at home. The difference, in this case – because “Mr. Landsbergis” is more than a reenactment made of footage which was initially intended for other purposes – is that the images which were brought to light are accompanied by a living testimony and, unlike other documentaries of the author, this is at the same time a historical landscape and a portrait. Vytautas Landsbergis, now in his eighties, takes a trip down memory lane and evokes the fight for Lithuania’s independence, the separation from the Soviet behemoth, and the assiduous search for the quintessence of freedom. An initiator and active participant, Landsbergis is a key character of the story himself, as if his own ghost from the past would visit him in the present. This is precisely what Loznitsa seems to tell us here, namely that the time that went by between the events of 1989-1991 and their recollection in the present makes them even more significant, that it’s not too late to return to the past to explore it more thoroughly and that, in this manner, we might find more about the present. And memory functions the same way: like a hook that pulls on us, determined to keep alive figures and events which were otherwise left way behind us. (Andreea Chiper)