Precariat in Lithuanian Cinema: Representational and Thematic Tropes

Abstract

Based on the concepts of the precariat and precarity formulated by Andrew Ross and Guy Standing, this article discusses the insights of Lithuanian filmmakers into various manifestations of social and economic vulnerability of society and provides an overview of the most distinctive representations and narratives of the experiences of precarity in Lithuanian fiction and docu­mentary films. The author suggests that only a small number of filmmakers deal with the new precariat as a social class, and this theme attracts the younger generation of documentary film makers rather than the established fiction auteurs or popular film makers. Therefore, no codified or universal representations and narratives of precarity and precarious have been established, although certain key tropes can be traced in the films, such as, for instance, systemic deprivation and social insecurity of the working class and the underpaid middle class or domestic migration and emigration in search for employment abroad prompted by regional inequality in Lithuania.