LAST CURONIAN COW
Dovydas Drakšas
Lithuania
In the Curonian Spit, the last remaining cow is taken away on a final journey through a landscape where she no longer belongs.
SYNOPSIS
The summer season is coming to an end. As tourists on the Curonian Spit chase the last sun, Juzė, the peninsula’s last remaining cow, is loaded onto a cattle truck, and begins her journey towards the mainland. Along the way, she watches familiar landscapes pass by, now turned into postcard scenes. Only encounters with local life, the community recognising one of their own leaving, slow the truck and prolong Juzė’s farewell to home. But her journey does not end in open fields – Juzė becomes an exhibit in a natural history museum.
INTENTION
The Curonian Spit is a remote region in Lithuania, a narrow strip of sand dunes and pine forests between the sea and the lagoon. Today, life here is shaped by seasonal tourism. Having long been just another visitor here, I wanted to understand the people who remain once the season ends: those who spend their summers hosting others, while slowly losing their own sense of home. Over a year living there, I encountered a community rich in stories and heritage, but also with a shared feeling – a quiet acceptance of the inevitable. Here, the ‘inevitable’ is tourism and the progress that comes with it. Here, the future is cowless: farm animals have been banned, and the last remaining cow was forcefully removed because she no longer fit the postcard image of the resort. This film reimagines that moment through Juzė, the mythical version of that last cow, who resists the ‘inevitable’ through her calm, life-affirming gaze. She becomes both a witness and a symbol of community in transition. I want the audience to feel that tension between wonder and loss – to sense the beauty of what is fading, and how quietly, how politely, it is being erased.
DIRECTOR
Dovydas Draksas
Dovydas Drakšas is a Lithuanian writer-director and a London Film School graduate. His latest short film Praeis (2024) had its world premiere at the 77th Cannes FF La Cinef competition. His work portrays people and places on the edge of disappearance, exploring themes of memory, identity, displacement, and modern life’s uneasy transformations.
Greta Akcijonaitė is a Lithuanian producer and co-founder of Magic Film. Her work includes Sujip (2025, Silver Crane winner), Left-Handed Pen (2024, Silver Crane winner, EFA Prix Vimeo nominee), and she also associate produced I Am Fine, Thanks (Warsaw IFF). Previously, she worked in film exhibition, distribution, festivals, and audience development.
greta@magic.film
PRODUCER
Greta Akcijonaitė
Genre
Drama
Length
20 min
Language
Lithuanian
Shooting location
Curonian Spit, Lithuania
Production company
Magic Film (Lithuania)
Estimated budget
€ 134.000
Secured funding
Lithuanian Film Center (LKC) - € 45.000, Tax Incentive - € 26.000, private investment - € 8.000, Neringa Municipality funding - € 5.000
Looking for
Coproducers, Post-Production, Sales, Distribution