Before Flying Back to Earth (originally released in Lithuania as Prieš parskrendant į žemę in 2005) is the first feature-length documentary film by the Lithuanian film director Arūnas Matelis.

In a lyrical, yet unsentimental fashion, it shows the lives of children hospitalized with leukemia in Vilnius Pediatric Hospital - the same place where Matelis' daughter had battled and recovered from this disease some time before the start of production.

The film is described as "a poetic, unsentimental Lithuanian documentary about the resilience of (the) human spirit".

Its laconic style and its formal simplicity have been likened to haiku by some critics.

[3] It has become only the second film from Eastern Europe, since Roman Polanski's The Pianist in 2003, to win an award in the ADG; it is also the only film from the region of Central and Eastern Europe to have been nominated for Best Documentary.