Lithuanian filmmaker and editor Gabrielė Urbonaitė explores the pressures on young women in her feature directorial debut Renovation, which will world premiere in the Proxima Competition lineup of the 59th edition of the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival.
The movie stars Žygimante Elena Jakštaitė (European Shooting Star 2021), Šarūnas Zenkevičius (European Shooting Star 2025) and up-and-coming Ukrainian talent Roman Lutskyi (Under the Volcano by Damian Kocur, 2024). The film’s cinematographer Vytautas Katkus will also be in Karlovy Vary, premiering his directorial debut feature The Visitor in the festival’s main competition.
Now, THR can exclusively reveal the first trailer for the movie about a young woman feeling the pressure to be settled and successful by the time she turns 30.
Ilona, a perfectionist 29-year-old, lives in present-day Vilnius, Lithuania. “At this turning point in her life, she begins to question how she truly wants to live. She moves into a seemingly perfect apartment with her boyfriend Matas, with whom things are getting serious,” reads a synopsis. “But as the building’s renovation begins, it’s not just cracks in the walls that are revealed — Ilona’s inner doubts also start to surface. She strikes up an unexpected friendship with Oleg, a Ukrainian construction worker. After spontaneously telling him she’s a poet, she actually begins to write poetry.”
But things threaten to get more dicey from there. “Their connection deepens her uncertainty,” highlights the synopsis. “Does she really want to settle down and start a family?”
Urbonaitė is familiar with such creeping doubts. “Renovation was born out of a personal sense of disorientation as I approached 30 — that feeling of being far from where you thought you’d be in life,” she explains. “I wanted to explore the tension between freedom and pressure at this age: the openness to change and the growing realization that time and choices are limited. For my generation, this experience is shaped not only by global uncertainty but also by the lingering weight of Soviet-era traumas and the war unfolding on our doorstep. It’s about navigating everyday life while constantly being reminded of its fragility.”
Renovation was produced by Uljana Kim for Lithuania’s Studio Uljana Kim, winner of the Eurimages International Co-production Award 2023 at the European Film Academy, Latvia’s Mima Films and Belgium’s Harald House. It is supported by the Lithuanian Film Center, the National Film Centre of Latvia, and LRT.
Kim founded her production outlet in 1997 and has since produced and co-produced 37 fiction and documentary features. Its latest titles include Two Prosecutors by Sergei Loznitsa, which recently premiered in the Cannes Film Festival competition), Five and a Half Love Stories in an Apartment in Vilnius, Lithuania by Tomas Vengris, and Mariupolis 2 by Mantas Kvedaravičius.
The trailer for Renovation shows a bit of home life, the start of a renovation, and some awkward social situations, including Ilona brainstorming a poem at – well, let’s say an inopportune time, as you will see. Watch the trailer below.
KVIFF 2025 takes place July 4-12 in the picturesque Czech spa town of Karlovy Vary.