“Flight over Lithuania” is a legendary film by Audrius Stonys and Arūnas Matelis, which won honors as No.4 of the Top 10 at the international exhibition EXPO 2000 in Hanover , Germany as one of the best films, demonstrated at the exhibition.

The film features an incredibly low angel’s flight over the dunes of Nida, Trakai castle, the lakes of Aukstaitija (Highlands), the roofs of the Old Town of Vilnius and the fantastically beautiful church steeples. It’s like a mystical gliding just above the treetops, meadows covered by early morning mist, as well as the narrow streets of Vilnius.

The film has combined a real sense of flying, modern technologies and classic poetic documentary.  When filming “Flight over Lithuania ” a very sophisticated shooting technique was applied, and probably for the first time in cinema history, a complex new-generation sound system was used, where sound is transmitted not only in a usual Dolby surround, but also from the above and below. To intensify the impression, gusts of wind, vibration of the chairs, and lighting effects were used in the hall.

The film of Lithuanian pavilion in Germany (Hanover) received very high evaluation. At the end of the exhibition, when the TOP 10 (of the best films, photographs, pavilions shown in the exhibition), was announced in MegaScene and Hannoverlive (published in Germany), the Lithuanian film “Flight over Lithuania” was not only in it, but was even positioned as high as No.4.

At No. 1 was a film, demonstrated at the Luxemburg pavilion, No. 2 – film from the pavilion of European Union, No. 3 – Mexican film, No. 5 – United Arab Emirates, No. 6 – French, No. 7 – German, No. 8 –film, shown at Europe’s largest pavilion PLANET M, of German media company “Bertelsmann”, No. 9 - Monaco, No. 10 – films, demonstrated at Croatian and Hungarian pavilions.   

Interestingly, the Lithuanian film demonstrated in the international exhibition in Hanover, managed to get better evaluation than, say, film of the strongest mass media concern in Europe Bertelsman or film of the German pavilion, which cost over 10 millions German marks (or approx. 25 times more than the film by A. Stonys and A. Matelis).

Also, for the first time in the history of Lithuanian cinematography, a short documentary film was attended by a record number of people – over 300,000 viewers during 5 months in one cinema hall in Hanover – a large number for any short documentary film made anywhere in the world.

Since Late Tuesday (July 1, 2003) evening "Flight over Lithuania" became also the first platinum film in Lithuania.

The Minister of Culture of RL R.Zakaitiene awarded Arunas Matelis and Audrius Stonys with the statuette for the first Lithuanian platinum film. This award is granted when more than 10.000 video or DVD copies of a film have been sold.

It is interesting to note that no other film in Lithuania (including the famous Hollywood films) have not come near this limit. The sales of “Flight over Lithuania or 510 Seconds of Silence” surpassed even the most popular American and European productions by 3-4 times.

It is an unbelievable success of the Lithuanian film to be envied by film producers, distributors and, of course, the audiences of any European country.

As Arunas Matelis joked after the awarding ceremony, “we finally managed to accomplish what Lithuanian basketball players were dreaming of – we were the first in Europe to defeat America/Hollywood, and no less than by forty points.”

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