The Jump
Giedrė Žickytė
In 1970, off the coast of Martha’s Vineyard during a tense standoff, Lithuanian seaman Simas Kudirka made a desperate leap for freedom from his Soviet vessel to a US Coast Guard cutter, but the Americans gave him back — inciting one of the Cold War’s most complex and suspenseful political blunders.
Through eyewitness reports, rare archival footage and a dramatic first-person re-enactment by now 90-year-old would-be defector, director Giedré Žickyté takes us on a stranger-than-fiction journey that led to this ordinary man becoming a symbol for freedom-seeking refugees everywhere.
Bearing the current war situation in Ukraine in mind, the story of this film today is still relevant as never before and the reason why this film is being screened in the week of 14 June, Lithuania's Day of Mourning and Hope, when the country commemorates the mass deportations of its compatriots by the Soviet Union during World War II.
Flagey, Embassy of the Republic of Lithuania to the kingdom of Belgium, Kaunas–European Capital of culture 2022, Lithuanian Culture Institute
Winner of 8 international awards, including the Audience Prize at Docville, in Leuven (spring 2021)
THE JUMP is a Lithuanian candidate for the 2022 Oscars Best Documentary Feature Film.
