A PARTISAN’S WIFE

  A PARTISAN’S WIFE (PARTIZANO ŽMONA)

  The film is based on the tragic love story of the partisan leader Juozas Lukša and his wife Nijolė Bražėnaitė, and the correspondence between them.
  Dr. Nijolė Bražėnaitė-Paronetto was born in Utena, Lithuania, in 1923. She studied medicine in Kaunas, Lithuania, and Innsbruck, Austria, in 1941–1947. She met Juozas Lukša “Daumantas” in Paris in 1948, and married him in 1950. Their marital life lasted but a week, because to avoid being exposed Lukša had to go into hiding and change his residence frequently. Thus they could only keep in touch through correspondence. A month after the marriage, they were forced to separate for good, as Lukša got on a British intelligence plane and was taken back to Lithuania.
  Lukša died on 4 September 1951, but the place of his burial remains unknown.
  In 1953, Nijolė left for the USA and didn’t have any news of her husband’s death until 1957. In 1995 she founded Juozas Lukša “Daumantas” Foundation dedicated to the preservation of the Lithuanian post-war resistance history.
The letters written by Lukša to his wife Nijolė were published in a book titled Letters for Lovers (Laiškai mylimosioms).