The Summer of Sangaile

Moody, 17-year-old Sangaile (Julija Steponaitayte) is struggling with private emotional pain, which causes her to cut her arms. Seemingly fascinated by single-engine airplane stunt flying (an airfield is near her parents' summer residence), Sangaile watches ace pilots execute barrel rolls, circles, and earthbound plummets. But even though she's given the opportunity, Sangaile won't go up in the air to see what such showmanship looks like from the inside. Still, her interest results in her meeting Auste (Aiste Dirziute), another beautiful teen, but one who, unlike Sangaile, is brimming with confidence about her gifts (she's a visionary designer and photographer), her sexuality, and her future. Over the course of a season spent in the sun and water, Sangaile and Auste become lovers, and the latter's influence on her emotionally stalled friend causes Sangaile to look at her life on a broader scale, full of possibilities. Dirziute is especially interesting: the camera loves her timeless look of grace, strength, and sacrifice (she would have done well in cinema's silent era). Her Auste gazes at Sangaile as if seeing a diamond in the rough, looking ahead to the full flower of the woman Sangaile will become. Writer-director Alanté Kavaïté works equally well on tiny and enormous canvasses, shooting powerful moments in the tiny spaces where Sangaile inflicts self-harm as well as in the great swaths of sky where airplanes carry on like untamed horses. Recommended. (T. Keogh)