The Generation of Evil (2021) — Vėlyvis After Redirected
After completing the Zero trilogy with Zero 3 (2017), Emilis Vėlyvis directed The Generation of Evil (2021, sometimes listed as 2022 in international databases) — his most recent feature as of the mid-2020s. The film moved into darker thriller territory and continued the director's evolution within the broad commercial-genre register. For viewers approaching Vėlyvis's filmography after Redirected, this is the natural next step in the chronological sequence.
What the film is
The Generation of Evil is a Lithuanian-language thriller set in the contemporary Vilnius criminal world that Vėlyvis has been mapping across his entire filmography. The basic plot mechanics involve the criminal-economy texture the Zero trilogy established, but the tonal register is significantly darker than either Zero 3 or Redirected. Where the earlier films balanced violence with comedy on a roughly equal footing, Generation of Evil tips the balance toward the thriller end and leaves less room for the comic relief that Zero and Redirected provided.
The setting remains Lithuanian and the working method remains the small-ensemble character construction that has defined Vėlyvis's films since 2006. What changes is the willingness to sit with darker material rather than punctuating it with comic beats.
Place in the filmography
If you arrange Vėlyvis's features in chronological order — Zero. Lilac Lithuania (2006), Zero 2 (2010), Redirected (2014), Zero 3 (2017), The Generation of Evil (2021) — a pattern emerges. The Zero films and Redirected operate in a register that allowed comedy and violence to share screen time roughly equally. Generation of Evil sits outside that pattern, leaning into the thriller side of what was previously a hybrid form.
This is not unusual for established commercial-genre directors. Tarantino's filmography moves through similar phases. Guy Ritchie's late-period work has occasionally dipped into straighter thriller territory before returning to the comedic register. Vėlyvis's move into Generation of Evil reads as a deliberate exploration rather than a permanent reorientation — though as of the mid-2020s no subsequent feature has yet confirmed which direction he intends to develop.
For the broader trajectory across all five features, see our Zero trilogy deep-dive and the main director profile.
Continuity with Redirected
Several elements carry through from Redirected into Generation of Evil. The Lithuanian setting is treated with the same geographic specificity — Vilnius locations are recognisable, peripheral spaces carry the same post-Soviet visual codes, and the script does not generalise the country into "Eastern European backdrop". The ensemble approach continues: Generation of Evil distributes screen weight across multiple characters rather than centring a single lead. The script's interest in criminal economies as social systems rather than just as plot machinery remains.
What is different is the absence of the cross-cultural register. Redirected built its entire comic apparatus on the friction of putting British men into a Lithuanian context. Generation of Evil is fully Lithuanian-language and operates without that external frame. The film does not need the visitor's-perspective device because the script is not concerned with looking at Lithuania from outside; it is set entirely inside.
The Šapranauskas absence
Watching Generation of Evil after Vytautas Šapranauskas's posthumous appearance in Redirected is a slightly different experience than approaching Vėlyvis's filmography in chronological order otherwise would be. Šapranauskas was a fixture of the Lithuanian screen environment Vėlyvis was working in. His death in 2013 and the Redirected dedication did not just close a single performer's career — it removed a presence from the broader ecosystem of Lithuanian commercial cinema that the country has not fully replaced.
Generation of Evil is one of the first significant Vėlyvis features that exists in the post-Šapranauskas Lithuanian screen world. The film does not address this directly. But viewers conscious of the gap will register it.
Reception and availability
Generation of Evil's Lithuanian reception was generally warm. Critical responses focused on the genre shift and the willingness to operate in darker territory than the Zero trilogy had typically allowed. International distribution has been more limited than Redirected's — partly because the film is Lithuanian-language only, partly because the marketing apparatus that put Redirected on Netflix in multiple territories does not extend automatically to every Vėlyvis production.
International availability of Generation of Evil is patchier than for Redirected. Viewers looking to complete the Vėlyvis filmography typically need to look to specialist platforms or to physical media imports from Lithuanian retailers. The film is on IMDb and other reference databases but its presence on the major Anglophone streaming platforms is intermittent.
For viewers approaching Vėlyvis via Redirected
The standard recommended path is to start with the Zero trilogy in order, then watch Redirected as the English-language detour between Zero 2 and Zero 3, then finish with Generation of Evil. This works for viewers who can find all five films. For most international viewers who can only locate Redirected and possibly one or two others, the working approach is: watch Redirected, then track down whichever Zero film is most accessible in your region, then look for Generation of Evil last.
Each of the films is a stand-alone entry. None requires familiarity with the others to be readable. But the texture of Vėlyvis's working method — the geographic specificity, the ensemble construction, the willingness to mix comic and violent material — is most legible when you can compare entries across the filmography rather than reading any single one in isolation.
What comes next
As of the mid-2020s, no subsequent Vėlyvis feature has been announced. The Generation of Evil remains the director's most recent work. Whether his next production returns to the Zero universe, continues the darker register Generation of Evil opened, or moves to another international co-production along the lines of Redirected is, at the time of writing, unknown.