Pilgrims (Piligrimai), Lithuania’s Official Submission to the 95th Academy Awards opens in U.S. cinemas on April 7, 2023.

In the film directed by Lithuanian filmmaker Laurynas Bareiša, a young man (Giedrius Kiela) and a young woman (Gabija Bargailaite) drive from Vilnius to a village to find out something…. what killed Matas — her boyfriend, his brother. Paulius Markevičius, Indrė Patkauskaitė, Jolanta Dapkūnaitė, and Ieva Andrejevaitė also star in the film which premiered at Venice Film Festival, and won the Horizons Award.

Filmmaker Laurynas Bareiša uses absence as a structuring principle, unfurling the plot by way of rumors and insinuations. Matas’ death is at once the film’s unresolved enigma and its epicenter; by refusing to make it visible and forcing us to picture it ourselves, to conjure our own version of the events, not only does Pilgrims make its central secret almost unbearably unnerving, it also makes us accomplices in its unearthing.

Watch the U.S. trailer for Pilgrims (Piligrimai).