Vyriškumas ir vyro kūnas šiuolaikiniame lietuvių kine
Masculinity and male body in the contemporary Lithuanian cinema

Summary/Abstract: The article focuses on the issues of masculinity, male body, power and trauma in the feature film “Zero: Lilac Lithuania” (directed by Emilis Vėlyvis, 2006, Lithuania). The film exemplifies the growing trend in post-Soviet film-making not only in Lithuania, but also in a wider post-Soviet space (most notably in Russian films). Violence, torture, murder, abject bodies, drugs, gambling and other social problems are at the epicenter of this film. “Zero” also loosely follows, with its intertextual citations, a postmodern crime film tradition. Vėlyvis’s film presents the performance of masculinity in the context of a perpetual social crisis. Male power and powerlessness are expressed here by the ranging violence and serial killing. It can be argued that this film signifies a dramatic shift from both heroic and “sensitive” masculinity of the Soviet films to violent anti-heroic post-Soviet masculinity incarnated in gross and abject screen male bodies. The male body in “Zero” functions as a spectacle of action and is subject to extreme bodily punishment, trauma and even graphic mutilation. Hysterically violent and self-destructive anti-heroes of the film “Zero” send mixed messages about the genre, violence, masculinity and feeling. On the one hand, they refer to embattled models of masculinity, unable to cope with social change and anxiety about male vulnerabilities. On the other hand, a spectacle of gross male bodies and the increasingly prominent and graphic violence in the Lithuanian film are symptoms of “wound culture” which centers on trauma and in which people wear their damage as badges of identity, feeling and survival.

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