Restricted Sensation

In Restricted Sensation, the Lithuanian sculptor and internationally acclaimed visual artist Deimantas Narkevicius explores the threats, difficulties and paradoxes of being gay in Lithuania under Soviet occupation in the 70s. He tells the story of a young Lithuanian, who, in the 1970s, loses his job at a theater because of accusations of homosexuality. Narkevičius recounts the events in a straightforward narrative, using first-hand accounts of Lithuanian gay men who lived under the threat of §122 of the Soviet Penal Code as the basis for his script.
Deimantas Narkevičius says: “My context is a country that was built on a social and political Utopia. But I grew up in the period when nobody really believed in it. The fall of the Soviet Union was at a time when people had other Utopias. These were liberal Utopias, about freedom to do what you do. These kinds of Utopia were also an illusion, and lasted only for a few years. People grew disillusioned very quickly. What kind of Utopias can be created on a human scale? That is the question and I don’t have an answer.”