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Before Flying Back to the Earth

Before Flying Back to the Earth

How come life in a hospital ward for children with leukaemia is full of games, joy and chatter? How do these little patients manage to go about their busy lives, when there is but little hope? Having spent eight months at the Vilnius paediatric hospital for the eventually successful treatment of his daughter for leukaemia, filmmaker Arunas Matelis returns to the ward to create a film full of life and magic moments in the face of death.

Building on the long earned trust of the children towards the camera the filmmaker skilfully applies a simple but highly effective narrative and thus manages to create an extraordinary film that avoids sentimentality but stays deeply moving.