Relatives from Lithuania

 

Before Netflix, internet downloads, even DVD's, videos were the latest technology back in the 1990's.  To make its way to Adelaide, a world away from Lithuania came a tv series called Gimines (Relatives). 

The series dealt with the various problems in a newly independent Lithuania.  Issues of land reclamation, racketeers, mafia and love triangles. The series ran from 1993 to 2007.

The series came as 10 videos (40 episodes), available for borrowing from the Adelaide Library for only $3 per week per video.  One needed to request the videos as the whole Adelaide Lithuanian community seemed to want to watch it (Duplicate copies were made).  The serial was purchased by the Adelaide Lithuanian Community Council and Adelaide Lithuanian Union.

It seems almost laughable now, that something so small as this caused a great stir in the community.  But Lithuanians in Australia would have never seen a program on tv in their native language, and for those who never returned home it gave them a glimpse of what life was like in Lithuanian then.

Cast of Gimines 20 years later