Dice-Ching-O-Mat
Date:
January 9, 2023
Dice-Ching-O-Mat
Dice-Ching-O-Mat
by Kristijonas Vildziunas
Studio Uljana Kim | Lithuania
Looking for Festival Release, Sales Agents
Logline
Solitary star seeking a constellation.
Synopsis
Vilis (55), a scholar of Asian Studies, finds himself trapped in the CUBE — a mysterious, elevator-like structure. When the CUBE flips, Vilis hits his head and realizes he no longer knows who he is. An intercom tells him to leave through the red doors and find the green doors outside.
The red doors lead Vilis to Vilnius, halted by the 2020 pandemic. There, he encounters his wife and adult children—two daughters and a son — yet feels like a stranger in his own family. His children are not surprised; after all, their father had long since disappeared into his academic bubble.
As Vilis searches aimlessly for the green doors, his family starts to fall apart. Turning to the ancient Chinese Book of Change, the core of his academic life, Vilis tries to outsmart the CUBE’s controlling mechanism — the “Dicechingomat.” But ultimately, he understands: only by establishing an emotional connection with his children could the green doors be found.
Director’s Profile
Kristijonas Vildziunas is a Lithuanian film director whose work has gained international acclaim. His debut, The Lease (2002), premiered at the Venice Film Festival and won Best Baltic Feature at Arsenal’s International Festival. You Am I (2006), co-produced with Pandora Film (Germany), premiered in Cannes’ Un Certain Regard and received multiple awards at the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival.
His feature Back to Your Arms (2010) swept the Lithuanian Film Academy Awards and was submitted as Lithuania’s Oscar entry. Seneca’s Day (2016), was also selected as Lithuania’s Oscar entry and earned him the Baltic Assembly Prize for the Arts. His latest film, Songs for a Fox (2021), premiered in Main Competition at Tallinn Black Nights.
Company Profile
Studio Uljana Kim is a leading company in Lithuania for producing full length features. Since its foundation in 1997 thirty eight feature and documentary films have been produced and co-produced by the company. Half of them were premiered at the most important international film festivals and others were successful at the domestic box office. The company’s goal is to produce & co-produce high quality art-house films intended for a worldwide audience.
Filmography(selected) : “Kiemas” by Valdas Navasaitis (Cannes IFF – “Director’s Fortnight”),1999),”You am I” (Kristijonas Vildžiūnas, 2006, Cannes IFF – “Un Certain Regard”),”The Gambler” (Ignas Jonynas“, 2013 SanSebastian FF), “Parthenon” (Mantas Kvedaravicius, 2019 Venice Critic’s week) ,”Mr Landsbergis” (Sergei Loznitsa, 2021, Amsterdam,IDFA Best Film Award),“Mariupolis 2” (Mantas Kvedaravičius, 2022, Cannes Film Festival Special Documentary Jury Prize; European Documentary Award at European Film Awards 2022)“Five and a half love stories in an apartment in Vilnius, Lithuania “by Tomas Vengris (Tallinn Black Nights 2023, Rebels with a Cause competition, Best Film Award); “Renovation” by Gabriele Urbonaite (Karlovy Vary IFF, “Proxima Competition”,2025 ); Uljana Kim was also the winner of the Eurimages International Co-production Award at the European Film Academy ceremony in 2023.