The war took everything from people – freedom, a feeling of peace, a sense of security, relationships. No one had any hope of continuing their lives. There was no goal in sight. Everyone was wandering aimlessly, trying to find a way to survive somewhere. Tomorrow would either come or not.
The history of Georgia was divided into two parts. Life before and after the August 2008 war. People learned how to live anew. Along with other emotions, a new feeling emerged – expectation. They were waiting for their friends and family members who had been lost in the war. Since that time, society was built on love and support for each other. Everyone had wounds on their hearts, but they still tried to survive, start working, and start a family. At night, quietly, when no one was watching, each of them cried. With each plane flying over, they were afraid that the war would start again. Some could not stay in Tbilisi for long during August and every year they waited with trepidation for this month to arrive. The war ended and the trenches remained deep. Here and there, along these trenches, there are still hidden mines left by the Russians. The Russians have not gone anywhere, they are still here.
Tamar Shavgulidze’s film, “Born in Georgia” (2011), tells the viewer about the post-war period, showing how friends survived after 2008. Tamro, Nika, Giorgi and Tina continued their lives like other people. They tried to start everything over. Giorgi opened a shop, Tina was a lecturer at the university, Tamro was an insurance company agent, Nika, who was used to a free life, visited friends at work, was the only idle person among them. But the question is, why was he like this? He might have lost himself due to the severity of the war and needed a push to continue his life. Nika was the connecting thread that turned out to be very necessary for his friends. When the boy left, there was nothing left of them.
On an ordinary evening, on Tamro's birthday, Nika announced to his friends that he was leaving tomorrow, at dawn, for three months. He finally found a job and left the woman nothing to reproach. He thought that if he woke up at seven in the morning, he would have a routine and work, and Tamro would be by his side, but that didn't happen.
It's interesting why he never called Tamro or Tina. He only used to contact Giorgi and read the news. He missed everyone, he might not have stood the place, but he didn't return. He probably thought they wouldn't understand if he came back.
This film is accompanied by one word throughout the story - I wish. What would have happened if the war had not started, or if Nika had not gone to work somewhere else, or if he had told Tamro earlier that he loved her? None of them express their love in words. The viewer is forced to understand what is happening through their actions, what they feel for each other. I wonder what would have happened if Nika had been that idle boy again, visiting friends at work or at home. The man was caught between two issues – either he should have been idle and alive, or busy and dead.
Irakli Charkviani's music is also symbolic and intensifies the feeling of anticipation. "I wonder when you will come to visit, I know that you live far, far away." This music foreshadowed what would happen throughout the film.
After the war scenes shown at the beginning of the film, the impression remains that another story should begin and another begins. The first part exists separately, independently. The story of the friends is simple and sad. They grew up together, were everywhere together, had a holiday at the sea, sneaked out from home, loved each other, and throughout their entire conscious lives there were four of them. At the end of the film, there were three of them left, then two. Nika was missing, and Giorgi went after him.
The whole plot is a protest against the reality in which they live. After the war, those who were spiritually and physically destroyed continued to exist. They had each other, but sometimes they still suffered from loneliness. They stood up and shouted at the enemy. Look, you fought against us, destroyed us, took everything away from us, you are still here, near Gori, but we can still love and we have hope for tomorrow.
These four are like characters in Nana Jorjadze’s film, “Forced Migration of Butterflies” (2024). Nana Jorjadze first reminded the audience of the Abkhazian war, and then of the 2008 war, awakening a sadness that they have never forgotten. There, friends came from Abkhazia, and the only thing they have is the house left by Kosta and the relationships that they keep. They love each other there too, they go there too and sometimes never return, but at least they don’t die in that film.
Death has become a sad ending in Tamar Shavgulidze's film and everything has turned gray. At the end, Tina's hair is darker than it was at the beginning. Nothing is colorful anymore. No one is happy about the dawn. It seems like they don't care about anything and have lost hope for the future.
It's hard to say whether the film is good or bad. It deals with a sensitive topic for everyone - war. There are rough and fast cuts, the narration is sometimes inconsistent, the plot doesn't quite unravel at some points, but it all becomes the same when you think about what this film is about. About people who lost everything. If the viewer cries, it's not because the film evoked emotions, but because memories reminded them of themselves. Everyone recognizes themselves in these four characters. The topic is general, it concerns everyone. There is nothing new in it. Many people made films after the war, but this director understood how to wrap up the story and did just that.
The Russians took everything from the Georgians. Territories, peace, the ability to empathize, a sense of freedom. They came and took everything they could. Nika didn’t die working on the highway. He was blown up on a mine left by the Russians, and that’s even more tragic. The film ends with Nika’s death, and everything else that happens after that is just a filler. Giorgi’s statement sounds like a bell, “If war starts, I’ll volunteer.” What an ironic word “volunteer” is. Nobody enjoys shooting a gun. Either you shoot and you’ll die, or they shoot and you’ll die. Where did the character’s transformation happen? In the morning, after Tamro’s call, when he hung up the phone, he already knew what he had to do. He got up and went to the Russian-drawn border. He knew exactly that he would be killed, but it no longer made sense.
Giorgi didn’t regret the decision he made in his emotional state for a single second. He might not have lived with the thought of what would happen if the war started. The depression that had lingered since August had eaten him up to the core. After returning to Georgia, he couldn’t see his place anywhere. Throughout the entire film, there was only one phrase running through his head, which is the same as what the poet Zviad Ratiani wrote in his poem, “Requiem for the Living” – “What have we done wrong, those who couldn’t get drunkard, couldn’t be killed?” Who knows who is more sinful now, Tamro and Tina or Nika and Giorgi. The boys can no longer feel any emotions, and the women are left with only memories of them.
Barbare Kalaijishvili
