The Fall of Oak Trees

The drama portrays the fate of a hired female worker Kazyte, who has been laboring on a remote farm. All three sons of her employer were interested in her, but she preferred the worker Klemensas. When the employer died, her will ordered Kazyte to marry the youngest son Antanelis. From this day a new life began. Slowly but surely Kazyte took control of the farm. The elder brothers appeared as a hindrance, so one after the other, they are disposed of. When only Antanelis, who has blindly followed her, is left to deal with, her scheme is made evident when she arranges that he should sign a will leaving all the property to her. Once Antanelis is removed, Kazyte is free to finally marry her old love Klemensas. However, when her lover finds what price has been paid for the future happiness, he refuses. One of Lithuanian cinema’s most misogynist scripts, the role of the woman character as ‘dangerous seducer’ is introduced. She must be punished for transgressing the borders of her ‘destiny’. The film’s title, refers to the ‘oak’ as to the ‘man’. The female character from the lower class, though rightfully challenging the class structure, and striving for the worker she loves, is only motivated by singular, personal love, and thus how her path and how she fells the ‘oaks’, the men, is against ‘natural law’. —haussite.net