During the World Wars, 1.6 million tons of munitions, such as explosives, mustard gas, TNT, white phosphorus and arsenic, were dumped into the Baltic Sea, with scant regard for their impact on marine life and coastal communities.
According to Dagne Vildziunaite, the Lithuanian producer of the doc project Baltic UXO, this waste was primarily discarded into the sea by the victors. Unlike in American waters, where explosives were buried at a depth of 1.5 kilometres, in the Baltic Sea they can be detected in waters as shallow as 10 meters, and remain unmarked on maritime maps.
“After the war, disposal of weapons often fell to young, inexperienced soldiers who lacked resources. As a result, bombs were often simply tossed overboard on the way to deeper waters,” Vildziunaite tells BDE. “Some of the weapons are now too rusted to be moved, while others are passed around because decontamination would be prohibitively difficult and expensive. Scientists estimate that we have only 25 years left before it becomes too late to remove…this military legacy from the sea.”
“We believe that with all the commercial activity currently happening in the Baltic Sea, the growing popularity of environmentalism, and [as we approach] the time when it’s too late to remove the munition from the sea, [now] is the right time to bring this topic to the screen and reach the hearts and minds and hearts of the people who watch it.”
Co-directors Agne Dovydaityte and Alexander Belinski made a bold impression on producer Vildziunaite when they first pitched the project to her in 2019. “Firstly, they had a very precise vision of the film, which I deeply appreciate as it provides a sense of security during the process, knowing we are on the same page from development to the final premiere. Their first film, The Sun Sets in the East, served as proof that we share the same cinematic language,” she says. “Secondly, they approached me with a vast amount of research on the subject and had already identified the main scholars and institutions we could collaborate with during the development process.”
Vildziunaite underlines the artistic approach that the filmmakers will undertake. “It is very important to us that cinema is not just a random medium chosen to tell the world about the issue of military legacies in the waters. The film medium itself and the cinematic language we chose to use have value in themselves. It is with this mission, to create not only a documentary but also a piece of cinema, that we invite the audience to join us on a rather transcendental journey, the idea of which can be understood without many words,” she says.
Final shooting is planned for September, with editing to be undertaken immediately afterwards ahead of delivery in early 2025. At Sarajevo, Vildziunaite will be looking to close financing as well as seek out a potential sales partner, distributors and festival interest.
“This film offers a poetic exploration of an entirely unexplored and little-known ecological, historical, economic, and, in a certain sense, philosophical problem,” she adds. “While the primary issue is clear—the influence of military legacy on various aspects of life—it also raises philosophical questions. Did those who disposed of ammunition at sea understand the risks? Did they feel guilty about the consequences for future generations? Do we, today, feel guilt toward future generations for our actions? What is our relationship with the sea, which is not only a source of inexhaustible resources and a vital trade route but also a fragile and easily damaged ecosystem? How does our past shape our future?”
