This week on The Melissa Dalton Show, Melissa chats to Gintarė Parulytė; Lithuanian-born actress and filmmaker from Luxembourg about her latest short film, her upcoming masterclass, and the revival of her award‑winning theatre piece.
After a successful career performing in both national and international theatre and film productions, Gintarė turned her creative energy toward filmmaking bringing personal, raw stories to life that travel across film festivals worldwide. Always seeking the intimate, the uncomfortable, and the absurd, she hopes her work can help people feel less alone, more mindful, and more connected.
'Sujip' A Short Film That Confronts Suicide
Gintarė’s new short film 'Sujip' centers on Aleksandras’s first day at a new job working for a suicide helpline centre. When the phone rings, Aleksandras confronts a provocative caller his own age who voices a desire to end his life. The story unfolds in a taut, emotionally charged exchange that puts human fragility front and center.
As Gintarė explains in the interview, “I wrote this film in three hours” perhaps a testament to how urgently the story needed to be told. And she shared, poignantly, that “my best male friend took his own life when I was 23… it destroyed my life at the time…I only began to heal when I began to talk about it.” On the subject of suicide, she noted: “we have to talk about it because we are human and our hearts are made out of glass at times.” Her willingness to address such a difficult topic is part of her mission: to draw attention to what many avoid, and to foster a space where people can feel seen, understood, and less alone.
The film has already been recognized in Gintarė’s home country: it won the Best Short Film award at Lithuania’s annual film awards. In Luxembourg, 'Sujip' will have its Luxembourgish premiere at the CinEast Film Festival on 17 October 2025, as part of the festival’s Marathon de courts‑métrages de fiction (Nord) screening block.
You can find tickets (and the full programme) via the CinEast ticketing platform: cineast.eventive.org.
Screenwriting Masterclass: 18 October
Following the premiere of 'Sujip', Gintarė will host a screenwriting masterclass on 18 October 2025. This masterclass is open to festival participants and film lovers alike offering a rare opportunity to learn from a filmmaker whose work straddles theatre and film, and who writes with unflinching honesty. You can register via the CinEast festival site.
The Return of 'Lovefool' to CAPE Ettelbruck
Gintarė is also bringing back her award‑winning one‑woman play, 'Lovefool', to CAPE (Centre des Arts Pluriels Ettelbruck). In 'Lovefool', she examines how unresolved childhood trauma, toxic expectations, and harmful relational patterns influence one’s ability to love and to be loved.
The play follows Grace (played by Kristin Winters) a young woman who seeks affection in all the wrong places until she is forced to confront what healthy self‑love might look like. Over the course of roughly 55 minutes, she navigates shame, grief, identity, and the absurdities of modern love, with vulnerability, humour, and piercing honesty.
This revival marks a return to Luxembourg for a production that has already toured internationally (from Edinburgh to London and more). Lovefool will be staged on 20 and 21 November 2025 at 20:00. For tickets and details on the performances at CAPE, check out CAPE’s website.
You can catch The Melissa Dalton Show every Saturday morning at 9–11am on Today Radio, and you can check out the full interview with Gintaré Paulytè on RTL Play.
