The Courtyard

The first feature of Lithuanian Valdas Navasaitis is a drama which unravels the hopeless 1970s when people were deprived of their roots and forced to sit and watch their lives slip from their fingers In a decrepit house that once belonged to a bourgeois family several families seek shelter Senis a 65yearold alcoholic lives on the ground floor with his wife and their 16yearold daughter Senis is a survivor of the Nazis as well as the communist camps He drowns the pain of his memories in a nearby pub and in talking to a depressed young laborer Lorenca Later on a young couple and a lonely eccentric who enjoys only his cats company join the inhabitants Children wile away the time with useless games or spying on adults When Lorenca hangs himself at the ruins of a nearby factory the lives are shaken up During the dinner held for the deceased they find a moment of common hope