by Mariam Bolkvadze
Georgia is my homeland which remains full of complex identity and cultural heritage even for me. This blog has become a fantastic chance to explore modern cinema hidden from me and explain political paradigms and cultural mosaics reflected in them.
In this era of new technologies, nationality and cultural identity are constantly transforming. We see its revealed true nature in modern art. As a result of analyzing Georgian cinema’s aesthetic, thematic, and genre strategies, I aim to show my readers the nation’s characterizing consciousness.
To understand modern Georgian cinema, we have to dive into the country’s history. In 1991 after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Georgian cinema, as well as the whole country’s culture, economy, politics, and so on, were placed in an unstable social-political environment. “For decades, national filmmaking was incorporated into the Soviet system”. (P8) Reclaiming independence caused the acceptance of a new reality, which became a traumatic experience for many citizens. People lost their savings due to inflation, and they lost jobs. Nation had a lot of emerging vital issues to solve and filmmaking was not one of them.
I was born in the year when the Soviet Union fell. The country was in a civil war, different forces trying to maintain power. The city streets were full of mass gunshots, and my parents would hide me from the bullets in our apartment. Within the next 15 years, the country had problems with power outages and long lines for food and other goods. Due to the non-existence of various public transportation routes, my grandfather would walk almost 5 hours from the city to a nearby village and back every morning to bring me fresh milk. I am mentioning a small number of personal examples to show what made the character of the country the way it is nowadays.
To my surprise, there were a lot of Georgian movies which I had yet to see. Finding them was hard, which can be explained by the distribution problem in Georgia. Most works are present at European film festivals. A couple of them are available in broader online streaming services. But unfortunately, I was not able to find anywhere a couple recommended by Georgia film critics movies (Keep Smiling – by Rususdan Chkonia; Line of Credit – by Nuca Mesxishvili). Below I will be discussing the works which I had a chance to watch.
Trailer: https://youtu.be/s9j8MvV7tE0
The movie by Nana Ekvtimishvili and Simon Groß, My Happy Family, tells about the cataclysm of the life of female protagonists. 52-year-old Nana Ekvtimishvili represents the face of a modern Georgian woman. As tradition dictates, she should be forgiving, caring for the whole family, raising children, and maintaining happiness. At the same time, men can get away with practically anything – cheating, constant drinking, and mentally abusing. Moreover, we see a society unwilling to accept divorced, free women. Nana tries to resist by leaving the house she shared with her kids, parents, and ex-husband. The movie’s last scene gives us an understanding that her rebellion will not last long.
Sometimes, we can’t verbalize facts, but they become evident and even naked to the camera eye. The film – In bloom, directed by the same duo (Nana Ekvtimishvili and Simon Groß), brings us back to 1992 and shows the difficult times the country went through after The Soviet Union fell. The piece tells the story of two teenage girls: Natia, the daughter of an alcoholic, and Eka. Young heroes share everybody’s hard life path. To get bread, they must stand daily in a line full of harassment and hate. The hyperbole of the story becomes highly emotional when Natia gets abducted and forced to get married. Her friend tries to support her emotionally and protect her from making wrong decisions. (“Bride kidnapping” nowadays is illegal in Georgia). The fact that Natia slept with a man, even against her will, meant that she had to become his wife. Nobody would have married her as she was not a virgin anymore. This work shows how daily violence in some families is considered a norm.
Trailer: https://youtu.be/IcmUjndPV8k
The film And Then We Danced by Levan Akin is not just an ordinary film about the LGBT community. Georgia is famous for its massive public protests against nontraditional sexual minorities. Patriarchs proclaimed the 17th of May, instead of celebrating International Day Against Homophobia, as a day of Family Strength and Respect for Parents. With this decision, they tried to block LGBT parades from happening.
The film shows the love between young men and connects them through traditional Georgian dance. The folk dance combines history and tradition, where man is a strong figure – without any touching. Showing the gay love of traditional Georgian dancers caused big chaos and drama in society. When the film premiered in Tbilisi, hundreds gathered and protested against the work. “Masked protesters threw firecrackers, burned a Pride flag, and pressed up against a police cordon. About a dozen were arrested and at least one activist was hospitalized as a result of the fray.” (1) You might ask why there is such a big fear towards gay people? I believe this issue as well is rooted in our past. For Georgia survival was the main goal, after countless wars with Mongols, Persians, Russians, and so on. The state started seeing its future in Christianity and closely following traditions. Gay love directly is considered as an attempt of attack towards “identity”.
The protagonists in the movie are trying to get into a national dance team, which requires a lot of training and mental capacity. The evolving love story shows the characters’ challenging economic situation as well. The movie does not offer a typical happy ending – one of the characters marries a woman to satisfy his parents ‘ desires. The work stood out as a story about personal exploration and growth.
Dea Kulumbegashvili’s film Beginning shows the struggles of being a religious minority. In predominantly Orthodox Christian countries, Jehovah’s Witnesses are not accepted. The work presents women’s struggles in different layers of patriarchal order. The husband demolishes her private desires or thoughts. While we discover the antagonists’ battles, the prayer house gets firebombed. Soon, a man calling himself a detective rapes Yana, demanding to stop her husband from investigating the explosion’s causes. Instead of support she gets blamed.
Every year The Prosecutor General’s Office receives complaints for crimes motivated by religious intolerance. “In September, the Tbilisi City Court convicted a man of raping a woman because she was a Jehovah’s Witness (2022 year)”.
Trailer: https://youtu.be/NuUG4VxWbak
Trailer of Parade:https://youtu.be/T76N7K_V2XU
Short Film Father: https://youtu.be/1PrVzyxSzmc
The films Father (By Data Pirtskhalava) and Parade (By Nino Zhvania) touch partially on the problem of organized crime. The term comes from 1930s Russia. Criminal networks formed over the years were trying to monopolize the protection of different business sectors, providing a shield from the attacks of various gangs. President Mikheil Saakashvili made the first massive reforms in 2005 and openly targeted and fought them. His presidency was over by published secret videotapes of gangsters’ rape in prison.
In Father, the main characters are brothers. While they have to be interested in girls and talk about school projects, siblings try to find different ways of stealing car parts. That’s the only way to help mother financially.
The film Parade shows the story of three childhood friends: a painter, an actor, and a newly released from jail gangster (In Georgia known as “thieves in law”). When these three get together, it is impossible to avoid trouble and adventures. Comical situations put these three lives in danger, but their friendship overcomes all hardships to return to the city.
Besides the films covering the country’s political and economic struggles, I want to introduce two poetic works:
The contemporary work of director Zaza Khalvashi, Namme takes us to the western part of Georgia – Adjara. It is located mainly in the mountains, surrounded by greenery and forest. The film language is as tempting as its script. Nature becomes a passive character who worries and feels emotions with characters. Namme is the main character, who is in charge of the magical fish with her father. The magical creature stops curing people after a dam construction near its waters. Film shows the power of patriarchy, the father decides Namme’s destiny. As a woman, she never had a chance to choose for herself or her happiness. Despite her loneliness and pain, she still remembered her destiny and accepted her path.
What Do We See When We Look at the Sky (directed by Alexandre Koberidze) is about love at first sight. While mystical, invisible, bad powers – evil eyes, split the young couple, we witness their journey and, finally – reunion.
While the story follows the main characters, we hear small stories from the regular lives of Kutaisi, where dogs of the town prefer to watch the world soccer World Cup or what are the most famous coffee spots for the locals.
Trailer: https://youtu.be/WfzEv4QxHZQ
Trailer: https://youtu.be/M_A9ktiOA0M
Single mom’s struggles are shown in the movie Ana’s Life by Nino Basilia. The main character has to work four jobs to support her autistic son. She thinks the only way to provide a better future for her kid is to immigrate to the US. In the hustle of getting a fake visa to the state, she sells her house and loses all the money.
In the last 15 years, 1.4 million people left Georgia (The population of Georgia nowadays is – 3.7 million). Unemployment and challenging economic conditions are the main reasons citizens leave the country.
Like other post-totalitarian countries of the 20th century in search of their own identity, Georgia is still trying to escape the Soviet past and mentality. The country’s identity remains still unique but to escape from the doctrines of a big aggressor takes time and a huge effort. The government is playing the dual game, showing desire to be part of the European Union (EU) and at the same time not upsetting the big neighbor (Russia). On June 23rd Georgia’s application for EU candidate status was turned down. The Commission’s main concerns were about the country’s democracy.
Getting back to filmmaking, the government has made a couple of important decisions to make film production more successful. The country offers a 20-25% cash rebate on qualified expenses while filming in Georgia. There are also emerging companies whose main activity is to attract and provide full-scale production services to foreign film projects.
While the country is trying to bring foreign investment into the country, local filmmaking remains extremely expensive and not affordable—the distribution path lies through European festivals.
Mentioned Films
- What Do We See When We Look at the Sky – Alexandre Koberidze
- And Then We Danced – Levan Akin
- My Happy Family – Nana Ekvtimishvili and Simon Groß
- Beginning – Dea Kulumbegashvili
- In bloom – Nana Ekvtimishvili and Simon Groß
- Ana’s Life – Nino Basilia.
- Father – Davit Pirtskhalava
- Namme – Zaza Khalvashi,
- Parade – Nino Zhvania
Used resources:
https://www-jstor-org.proxy.wexler.hunter.cuny.edu/stable/23252257#metadata_info_tab_contents
https://www.state.gov/reports/2021-report-on-international-religious-freedom/georgia/
https://www.gq.com/story/how-and-then-we-danced-became-2020s-most-controversial-movie
Magda Anikashvili – Dissertation “State support of national cinematographer and problems of film production”
https://www.jstor.org/stable/23252256
http://femicide.ge/eng/list/28
https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:1a0fdb4a-a671-4675-840d-dea296bc5272/download_file?file_format=application%2Fpdf&safe_filename=THESIS01&type_of_work=Thesis https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2022/6/21/the-eu-commission-may-regret-denying-georgia-candidate-status