Barracuda

Directed by

Tomas Vengris

Kaunas, 1978: endless shortages, black-market flea markets, fake gold, and the screeching tires of Zigulis. Loreta, an unhappy young mother, trades her grey, impoverished daily life for the bustling Olympus of Kaunas's criminal elite. When she finally becomes the wife of Mongolas, a charismatic mafia man, her life of luxury and love doesn't last: on Christmas 1993 her husband vanishes without a trace, and her world shatters. After two decades of silence, Loreta hears the imprisoned Henrikas Daktaras call her a "barracuda, junkie and tramp" on television and she returns to Kaunas to defend her dignity. In court, the women of the neighbourhood and the widows of mobsters gather and begin a merciless lynching. Drawn into a whirlwind of dramatic memories, the viewer must answer one question: who is this woman, the first in Lithuania to be legally ruled a "barracuda", an innocent victim of her era, or a cold-blooded player?