Renovation

The Lithuanian film Renovation takes place almost entirely in an apartment in Vilnius. We follow 29-year-old Ilona, who struggles with the pressure to be successful and settled before she turns thirty. She moves into a seemingly perfect apartment with her boyfriend Matas, but soon they learn that the entire building will undergo a thorough renovation lasting several months. Ilona and Matas knew nothing about this and are unpleasantly surprised. 

Ilona, who works from home as a translator, is particularly bothered by the noise, and the renovation of the building also brings her existential doubts to the surface. She seeks distraction in an unexpected friendship with Oleg, a Ukrainian construction worker, to whom she pretends to be a poet. Their unexpected friendship and her ambition to actually write poetry only increase her insecurity. With the war in Ukraine looming in the background, the renovation symbolizes Ilona's inner struggle: does she really want to settle down and start a family?

This spot-on debut film by director Gabrielė Urbonaitė premiered at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival in the Proxima Competition. The film was subsequently screened at the Sarajevo Film Festival and the Norwegian International Film Festival in Haugesund, among others. Renovation was shot on 16mm film by Vytautas Katkus, who was also the cinematographer for Toxic (2024) and is making his directorial debut this year at the Northern Film Festival with The Visitor (2025).