Films with the participation of actors from the former republics of the Soviet Baltic are still shown on our screens today. But not so much is known about the fate of actors and actresses. Let us dwell on one of them, whose fate was lost in the distant 70s. So, Lina Braknite, a girl with the eyes of the color of cornflowers, who never became an actress, but with ease with just three childish roles in a big movie won the hearts of millions of boys.
The first time she appeared on the screen when she was 11 years old. It was a picture of a Girl and an Echo. A little later - the role of Suok in the film "Three Fat Men" and other vivid roles. But after 17 years of age, Lina no longer acted in films.
Childhood
Lina Braknite saw this world in Vilnius, in a family that had nothing to do with cinema. She didn’t even dream of a movie that she herself found at the school where the girl studied. After all, it was there that the assistant director accidentally wandered, looking for a female lead in the film based on Nagibin’s story “Echo”. The girl was slender, small and very expressive, which struck the crew. Soon she was approved for the main role - Vicki.
Played Lina Braknite very easily, sometimes even "redrawing" the script itself. According to the book, the girl broke the betrayal, and in the picture she leaves the winner. This film was watched by six million viewers, which is a lot to work from the "children's" category. It has been mentioned in cinema encyclopedias and is strewn with petals of praise at various film festivals.
Fame after the role of Suok
It takes only two years after the girl’s film debut, and she is already invited to another picture. Scold Lina, an actress starring in films for young viewers, began working on a role that made her famous in an instant. The picture of Aleksey Batalov “Three Fat Men” knocked on her fate. And the little actress was to play the role of Suok. Adult actors later recalled how easy it was for them to work with the girl, how hard-working and attentive to all the comments.
The only thing that didn’t work out very well for her was the voice acting of the material she shot, so some of the scenes in the finished picture were helped by her senior friend, Alisa Freindlich. Fame was not long in coming; it came immediately after the tape came out on the screen. Letters and fans rained down. And new roles came.
Dubravka and others ...
In the coming 1967, Lina Braknite played its main role, thanks to which it is now recognized, despite the fact that so many years have passed. It was the film “Dubravka” (directed by Radomir Vasilevsky), the story of a girl, a little different from everyone else, a little wild, but with a big and loving heart. For this work, she received a prize for Best Actress at the Republican Film Festival in 1967. A little later, four years later, in her acting biography, another interesting film happened - “The Sea of Our Hope”. She played very sincerely, was just amazingly natural in front of the camera’s eye, the girl was able to vividly embody the necessary image.
Life after the movie
After receiving a school certificate, Lina Braknite, whose biography is not as famous as that of other actresses, arrives in Moscow to enter VGIK. After failure, she returns home to Vilnius and graduates, becoming a “historian”. The girl always had a genuine interest in ancient history, and acting, so unexpectedly bursting into her life, only distracted from her favorite pastime.
Over two decades, she worked in the rare book department of the library of the Institute of History. She rarely recalls her work in the cinema, practically does not communicate with representatives of the media, and in rare interviews, Lina speaks little and reluctantly about life on the set.
Today's Lina Braknite
He lives in Vilnius with his family now Lina Brack. Her personal life was very successful: she married the well-known photographer and book publisher Raimondas Paknis in Lithuania. She often recalls with a warm smile that her future husband had many rivals aspiring to her heart, but Raymondas beat all of them. Together they are almost forty years old. Since childhood, Lina loved hiking, therefore, having become a married lady, she tried to recreate this atmosphere by traveling with her family. First, with her husband, and later, when they had a daughter, Vika, they drove three together. The daughter has already managed to study in England, get married and give her parents a grandson, with whom they spend every summer in their country house.
Lina is genuinely surprised that even now she is recognized by the role of Dubravka, once played in childhood. A woman tries to keep herself in shape and look after her face with expensive creams. She never observes diets, only after Christmas she can arrange herself a few fasting days. I am sure that her youth from her mother, who was on her deathbed (this happened when her mother was well over 80), looked pretty attractive.
She does not regret at all that she did not become an actress. After all, the girl was embarrassed because of her growth - she was small and thin. It is only annoying that after the filming of Three Fat Men she was not allowed to take at least the Suok bow as a keepsake.
She still sews and knits, as in her youth. And I am grateful to Alexei Batalov for the school of life that took place on the set of the tale of fat men.