The author analyzes the works of Sharunas Bartas - a Lithuanian avant-garde filmmaker, one of the core persons of the neo-modernist trend in contemporary art cinema. Syska describes the origins of the unique aesthetics and idiosyncratic elements of film style which allow Bartas to create one of the most convincing models of cinematic melancholy. The topic of the time, the past, subjectivity and decay as well as youth destroyed by the history, alienation and poverty are the most visible in his films. Syska also highlights these elements of film narration which present Bartas as a representative of Slow-cinema, underlying the use of post-colonial methodology in description strategies.