ARUNAS MATELIS RETROSPECTIVE

The Gospel According to Lift-Man Albertas

Year
2013
Country
Lithuania
Duration
19’
Director
Аrūnas Matelis

Although it consists of only 20 shots, Sunday. The Gospel According to Lift-Man Albertas is a rich allegory that one can read in several different ways. Religious references and allusions to Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot urge themselves upon us, and Matelis’s view of reality is just as sad as it is humorous. His subject, the elevator operator Albertas, appears to be frozen in time. He spends his monotonous days waiting for the one or two people who need him to take them up or down. But his attitude is serene, and his waiting connects him to the world around him. The director observes mercilessly, melancholically and with a subdued strength. When cars quickly move through one another at the end of the film, Albertas’s simple loneliness takes on an almost spiritual dimension.

CREW:
Director: Аrūnas Matelis
Producer: Аrūnas Matelis
Cinematographer: Andrius Trukanas, Rimvydas Leipus, Vytautas Survila
Editor: Vida Buckute
Sound: Viktoras Juzonis, Аrūnas Matelis
Production and Sales
Studio Nominum
Director
Аrūnas Matelis

Аrūnas Matelis was born in 1961 in Kaunas, Lithuania. After directing 10 creative documentary shorts, Arūnas Matelis’s first mid-length documentary Before Flying Back to the Earth received more than 10 awards, including a Directors’ Guild of America (DGA) Award, awards at IDFA Amsterdam, DOK Leipzig, and a nomination for the European Film Award.

Selected Filmography

Selected: Giants of Pelesa (1989), 10 Minutes Before Flight of Icarus (1990), Selfportrait (1993), First Farewell to Paradise (1998), Sunday. Gospel According to Lift-Man Albertas (2003), Before Flying Back to the Earth (2005)

Hall «GEGEMON»
Zhovten cinema
Kostiantynivska St, 26
Q&A with director
Original language with English and Ukrainian subtitles
Hall «ANSHLAG»
Zhovten cinema
Kostiantynivska St, 26
Original language with English and Ukrainian subtitles
22 INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS DOCUMENTARY FILM FESTIVAL
 6 — 13 
June 2025
Wonderful Losers: A Different World
ARUNAS MATELIS RETROSPECTIVE
Wonderful Losers: A Different World
Year
2017
Country
Lithuania, Italy, Switzerland, Belgium, Latvia, UK, Ireland, Spain
Director
Аrūnas Matelis
Duration
71’
ARUNAS MATELIS RETROSPECTIVE
Before Flying Back to Earth
ARUNAS MATELIS RETROSPECTIVE
Before Flying Back to Earth
Year
2005
Director
Аrūnas Matelis
Duration
52’
ARUNAS MATELIS RETROSPECTIVE
The First Farewell to Paradise
ARUNAS MATELIS RETROSPECTIVE
The First Farewell to Paradise
Year
1998
Country
Lithuania
Director
Аrūnas Matelis
Duration
15’
ARUNAS MATELIS RETROSPECTIVE
Ten Minutes Before Flight of Icarus
ARUNAS MATELIS RETROSPECTIVE
Ten Minutes Before Flight of Icarus
Year
1990
Country
Lithuania
Director
Аrūnas Matelis
Duration
10’
ARUNAS MATELIS RETROSPECTIVE
From Unfinished Tales of Jerusalem
ARUNAS MATELIS RETROSPECTIVE
From Unfinished Tales of Jerusalem
Year
1996
Country
Lithuania
Director
Аrūnas Matelis
Duration
26’
ARUNAS MATELIS RETROSPECTIVE
Flight over Lithuania or 510 Seconds of Silence
ARUNAS MATELIS RETROSPECTIVE
Flight over Lithuania or 510 Seconds of Silence
Year
2000
Country
Lithuania
Directors
Аrūnas Matelis , Audrius Stonys
Duration
8’
ARUNAS MATELIS RETROSPECTIVE