Twenty years after leaving Soviet Lithuania for America, and shortly after the fall of the USSR and the country’s independence, Viktorija returns to Vilnius in 1992. Recently divorced, the mother of 12-year-old Kovas wants to reclaim her family’s former property. But when they arrive at the estate with the help of Viktorija’s old boyfriend, they find it occupied. Nonetheless, the émigré is not willing to let go of her dream … Told entirely from the perspective of Kovas, “Motherland” gradually reveals the psychogram of a young boy in a country that is foreign to him, and where his mother becomes more and more foreign to him. This feature debut by American director Tomas Vengris, himself of Lithuanian extraction, is impressive in the restraint of its narrative, a strong visual concept that does justice to the vast Lithuanian landscape, and the confident use of dramaturgic effects.