“I was born and raised in Lithuania, and in the 90s, I grew up watching Mexican and other Latin American telenovelas as a kid,” Lithuanian journalist-turned-filmmaker Viktorija Mickute tells Business Doc Europe of the genesis of her debut documentary feature The Poor Cry Too.
“It was something that came back to me as I started traveling around the world and meeting other people. And then, when I went to Mexico and traveled through Central America, I realized that I have such a strong connection with a lot of people there, especially moms and grandmothers. It was very surprising to them and it was very surprising to me,” she adds.
The project participated in the Ex Oriente training program in 2023/24 and received the Cut thru the Noise Award, given to the project team that has made the most progress during the workshop at this year’s East Doc Platform that ran from March 22 to 28 in Prague. The development of the project is supported by the Lithuanian Film Centre and Creative Europe’s MEDIA program.
In the film, Mickute and co-writer Ieva Balsiunaite follow several Lithuanian women from different generations who were all fans of Latin American telenovelas in the 90s. These telenovelas shook women’s inner worlds across many post-Soviet countries. Stores would close, streets would empty and even cows were milked according to the telenovelas TV schedule. “Using telenovelas as an unexpected lens, the film dives into the issues of domestic abuse, gender roles, the evolution of femininity, sexuality, romantic relations and feminism in the post-Soviet region,” underline the project notes.
“We’re focusing on the narratives and messages telenovelas brought to our region and we want to see how those narratives and those ideas shaped us as women and girls growing up at that time. It’s a story that we can all relate to. We don’t want to make a film only about this phenomenon. We want to dig deeper and ask much bigger questions so that the film gives us some answers as to how the world is being shaped through mass media and how we have evolved from the 90s to now,” explains Mickute.
Lithuanian producer Dagne Vildziunaite understood quite early on that the film could attract a strong audience. “After two years in development, I think we have quite a unique angle and I think it will be a very interesting story,” she says.
Ex Oriente was the first pitching stop for the team. Vildziunaite recognizes the international potential of the film and is open to collaborations with other European as well as Mexican partners. “We envision the project as a three-country co-production, but we are currently in discussions with various countries and are keen on welcoming potential partners, especially from Mexico,” she discloses, adding that the project is close to production and is expected to be completed in 2026.
For Mickute, East Doc Platform was an ideal launch pad, especially in terms of testing audience waters. “Just to see the reactions, especially in the region, to see the similarities, the differences… It’s a shared experience among a lot of people in a lot of countries. So, it was such an amazing place to share these stories and see what resonates with whom.”
As the project is still at development phase, the visual style of the film has yet to be determined, “We’re drawing inspirations from many different documentaries and films. We’re building the film language [that we would like to have]. We’re trying to figure out the kind of film language that is ultimately going to be born out of all our discussions and ideas,” remarks Mickute. “There’s definitely going to be a lot of lightheartedness and humor while talking about serious issues, [combined with] archives and telenovela excerpts – all visual elements that will not going to let [the film] lose [its] self-irony and distinctive tone.”
