Posts Tagged ‘Georgian cinema’

Amoki (1927) Svaneti Film Festival 2024

Konstantine “Kote” Marjanishvili, also known by his Russian name of Konstantin Aleksandrovich (1872 – 1933), was best known as the founder of Georgian modern theatre and is widely celebrated for his part in the development of pre and post-revolutionary stage productions which were known for their lavish style and prodigious output

Born into a well-to-do literary family in Kvareli, then part of Russian empire, he started life as an actor/director during the early years of the 20th century before joining a troupe in Moscow where he later made a name for himself as an accomplished follower of Konstantin Stanislavsky (1863-1938) and went on to direct six films of various genres during the 1920s including this silent drama Amoki in 1927.

Inspired by Stefan Zweig’s Indonesian-set short story Amok the director heads off on an avantgarde flight of fantasy in his silent feature debut, a murky morality tale translocated to India. It sees a drug-addled alcoholic doctor (played by Aleksandre Imedashvili) descend into a hallucinogenic opium trip after suffering a breakdown and fetching up in an Indian village where he exploits the locals and attempts to take advantage of a married woman who requests his services in performing an abortion which will end in tragedy for both of them.

Serving both as an ethnographic snapshot of rural life in India at the time and an imaginative social drama the stealthy pacing and a sinister soundtrack only adds to the tension of this opium infused sortie into the imagination of a corrupt medic taking advantage of the characters he meets along the way (Nato Vachnadvili is particularly expressive and suitably dressed in the fashionable style of the era). The scene involving a bicycle theft is accompanied by the rhythmic whir of the wheels while also providing a palpable metaphor for colonial oppression. DoP Sergei Zabozlayev experiments with a dazzling array of inventive cinematic techniques including double exposures, aerial shots and soviet montage. A brave experimental film even by today’s standards. @MeredithTaylor

SVANETI international film festival 15-21July 2024

https://youtu.be/-9svbnswPJA?feature=shared

Georgia on my mind…the London Georgian Film Festival 2023

The Black Sea, with its rich history and contemporary geopolitical significance, is at the heart of the seventh edition of the London Georgian Film Festival: Reflections on the Black Sea held at the Ciné Lumière in South Kensington from 28 September – 3 October. The festival takes place against the backdrop of Russia’s war in Ukraine, the fallout of which has made the Black Sea the focus of global attention.

The London Georgian Film Festival provides a rare opportunity to see 2020s Contemporary World Cinema from Georgia, Romania, Turkey and Ukraine, alongside previously banned 1920s silent films with live piano accompaniment. Through the selection of films from these countries, the festival takes audiences beyond the news headlines of the conflict to look into the lives and historical context of the people in the region. The programme features films from emerging filmmakers and writers, highlighting the experience of women and the LGBTQ+ community, and almost half of the films in the festival are directed by women. Summer Rutterford-Morley takes us through some of this year’s festival highlights.

International festival hit A Room Of My Own directed by award-winning filmmaker Ioseb ‘Soso’ Bliadze and co-written by actor Taki Mumladze. Tina (Taki Mumladze) has left an abusive marriage and moves in with hard-partying Megi (Mariam Khundadze). As Tina struggles to find her independence, she and Megi form an intimate bond which neither woman anticipated. The release of the film was a risk; similar films with LGBTQ+ themes have been met with protests in Georgia.

Snow And The Bear is the directorial debut of Turkish filmmaker Selcen Ergun. The film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival and follows a young forward-thinking nurse called Asli, who arrives at a remote Turkish town cut off from the world by an endlessly harsh winter amidst rumours of bears awakening early from their winter sleep. The film mirrors the constant pressure of feeling unsafe as a young woman in Turkey, where just 6% of films are directed by women.

The gripping Romanian drama Miracle, directed by Bogdan George Apetri, follows the tragic journey of Cristina Tofan, a 19-year-old novice nun, caught between the man’s world she has grown up in and the repressive old-fashioned isolated convent where she seeks sanctuary. The film unfolds as an unpredictable and captivating story while commentating on Romanian society and attitudes towards women.

Let Us Flow is Sophio Medoidze’s first feature documentary, offering a nuanced perspective on the annual August festival of the Tush people, as the filmmaker records young men visiting sacred ancestral shrines not accessible to women in the community. This poetic film considers the importance of ritual, the maintenance of community ties, and how modernisation and migration are transforming rural landscapes.

Anna Japaridze’s short film Glasses Crack, Tablecloths Splinter: Salvaging Georgia’s Undigitized Home Video Cassettes begins with home video footage following her birth in Tbilisi, soon after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Raised between Tbilisi and London, the film revisits Japaridze’s memories through footage and draws on the collective memories of many Georgians, through the time capsules of newly digitised home videos.

The Crazy Stranger by award-winning director Tony Gatlif is a fascinating classic film about World music and will be introduced by World music expert, film and music producer Joe Boyd. The film won Best Film at the Locarno Film Festival in 1997 and follows a young, passionate Frenchman on a mission to find a folk singer in a Romanian village, where he gets entangled with the life of the local Romani community and musicians.

The festival will also screen in the UK for the first time two recently restored classic silent films with live piano accompaniment by John Sweeney, highlighting historical parallels and recurring themes across generations. Banned by the Soviet authorities, The Self-Seeker is a brilliant, satirical film that follows an easy-going Kyiv opportunist as he tries to avoid the 1917-1921 civil war with the aid of a miraculous camel. The film will be preceded by a reading of a Ukrainian poem and will support Siobhan’s Trust, which is delivering assistance to Ukrainian communities on the frontline.

Against the breathtaking backdrop of the Georgian mountains, Vladimir Barskiy’s 1927 film Bela offers a deep dive into history, highlighting love and cunning in the Caucasus. Vladimir Barskiy also played Commander Golikov in Eisenstein’s masterpiece Battleship Potemkin. @Summer Rutterford-Morley

The London Georgian Film Festival: Reflections on the Black Sea will be held at the Ciné Lumière from 28 Sept – 3 Oct 2023

Wet Sand (2021) Bfi Flare

Dir: Elene Naveriani | Cast: Gia Agumava, Eka Chavleishvili, Zaal Goguadze, Kakha Kobaladze, Megi Kobaladze, Bebe Sesitashvili | Georgia, Drama, 115′

Elene Naveriani’s subtle and classically told auteur feature centres on a rather sinister turn of events in the closely knit seaside community on Georgia’s Black Sea coast. Neighbours who thought they knew each other are suddenly back-footed when a regular at the local beach cafe is found to have committed suicide to everyone’s surprise. The dark humour is in the realisation that savage mistrust and divided loyalties are just as at home here and they are in the big city, and perhaps even more so. Agnes Pakozdi’s camerawork creates a painterly sense of place in the faded grandeur of the settings. Naveriani directs with style and attention to detail in an unhurried but memorable gem that won Gia Agumava’s performance Best Actress at Locarno 2021. MT

NOW SCREENING AT BFI FLARE 2022

 

The Harvest (2019) **** IFFR Rotterdam Film Festival 2019

Dir: Misho Antadze  | Doc, 70’ | Georgia

Georgia’s past collides with the future in Misho Antadze’s debut documentary feature that unfurls at Rotterdam Film Festival’s Perspectives strand. 

In the ancient countryside Georgia is softly making its way into the 21st century as the second largest exporter of bitcoins. And while bees still buzz in the flowery fields of the Gombori Pass a louder buzzing is heard from the space-age machines that crackle and whir from their neon lit hives housed in disused villas, ushering in a new and thriving form of capitalism.

Once only home to vines and fruit, the rural Kakheti wine region sees the boundary between the natural and the virtual virtually eradicated. Cows placidly graze alongside satellite dishes in a bizarrely bucolic lunar-like landscape. While the shepherds still talk of the past and of family disagreements, their kids chatter over gaming devices or exercise their drones in the leafy landscapes.

This almost silent sinister meditation grows more and more unsettling as the finale looms. Fluid camerawork deftly dices the old and the new in long takes that picture placid protagonists working on the countryside or on computers, unaware that the landscape is changing – both literally and figuratively. MT

ROTTERDAM FILM FESTIVAL 2019 | PERSPECTIVES

 

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