Documentary

Next Stop Paneriai

A train pulls into snow-covered Paneriai, raising a cloud of snow in its wake. Eitvydas Doškus’s Next Stop Paneriai offers a distinctive continuation of the cinematic exploration of the city begun in Once Upon a Vilnius. This time, however, the railway becomes the axis of a story about multilayered time. Traces of the past are preserved by the Paneriai Memorial and an abandoned tunnel inhabited by bats, semi-feral cats and crumbling houses mark a vanishing present, while children playing at school turn our gaze towards the future. These layers of time overlap like images changing one after another through a train window, making it impossible to clearly distinguish what has already happened from what is yet to come. A meditative film distinguished by its evocative soundtrack, Next Stop Paneriai creates a sensory portrait of a part of Vilnius that is most often simply driven through.