Audrys (2017)

"Audrys" is a documentary about a cardinal with an extraordinary life story. He was born in independent Lithuania, to a family of diplomats. When he was two years old, his family was forced to leave the country because of the Soviet occupation. His values were shaped in France, in a free Europe where he spent his childhood and youth, and where he chose the path of a clergyman. He studied in Rome, worked in the Vatican, had a close friendship with Pope John Paul II, went on missions in different countries on different continents - all of it gave him unique experience and perception of the world. Nevertheless, he has never lost his love for the homeland too. He could return to Lithuania only after many years, when he was appointed Archbishop of Vilnius. However, challenges and difficulties awaited him in his fatherland: the Soviet society and the church which was separated from the outer world did not easily accept the visions and dreams of Audrys Juozas Backis, who was unaffected by the Soviet era: a free person, different than others and therefore often misunderstood. A man whose mission was to fundamentally change the Church in Lithuania in the upcoming new post-Soviet times. After gaining authority in Lithuania, he did not lose it in the West either: he is always welcomed as a spiritual leader in Paris and Rome, participates in the consistencies of cardinals, elections of a new Pope and, according to some sources, even was a candidate himself.