"Mziuri" (“sunny”), which creates an association of Georgia's Soviet past and, at the same time, a stable existence stemming from this past, is the title of Ketevan Machavariani's documentary film (2020) as well as the name of its main character.
There is nothing special about this door-to-door practice, with which the character, Mziuri Gogichaishvili, like her colleagues, struggles every day. It is worth noting that the film won several prizes and the main idea in it is something which is established from the other side of post-Soviet Georgia – the general picture of the social interviewer's survey.
The part of Georgia seen and experienced by this film hero is a lot of frustration, even more attitudes, a feeling of insecurity that, according to the misconception, occurs "only in this country" and the answers given by one in four residents to questions about what people think about abortion, minority rights, unemployment problems, social problems, etc. the part of Georgia from the past and formed in modern times, where people are more afraid than hopeful about the future. The main thing to note is the peculiar vision of the existing and actually used interiors created by the director – as if softened, with a slightly warm light everywhere, non-presentational by the actors themselves and, at the same time, like a school survey, full of anticipation towards the content of the next question: what will be the subject of interest this time, about Santa Claus or when was the film's hero ashamed of being Georgian? Or more precisely, has she ever been ashamed of it at all? If it weren't for the placidity and the involuntarily self-imposed mood in the film plot, which its characters – respondents bring with their balanced, mostly with still calm attitude towards the events, the content of these questions would often seem incomprehensible to us. It is clear that the topic is unlimited, and the door-to-door specialist uses any range for this, taking into account the awkwardness of the question, but it is completely unclear what this type of social survey serves: to know the character, the range of problems? Then, isn't it too unnatural to formulate the question in this way: have you ever been ashamed of being Georgian? Of course, someone somewhere, and probably the majority of humanity, has felt uncomfortable with being Portuguese, or at least Californian, because he found himself in an uncomfortable reality in his own space, in his country, because of other people's behavior and political opinions, because of social immorality, or for some other reason. Therefore, the answer will be unequivocal, but this is characteristic of the Georgian reality. There is revelation of a feeling or why it feels like someone is trying to shame people for everything and everyone – for example, even because young people go to work in other countries or because they can't think about the future, pensions, income, etc. with proper enthusiasm. Based on everything, it is necessary (and not by itself) to create the strictest picture of being out of the post-Soviet space, where economic well-being will somehow constantly depend on the care of others (in this case, the country) – such a desire is felt.
There is nothing special in this motif, in this attempt to bring reality from different dimensional spaces to the viewer, but with the same intonation, the attempt to create a feeling of vulnerability brought by different questions is obvious, and the uniformity of the opportunities of even the society that visited by Mziuri – itself quite important, a character distinguished by rare calmness and benevolence, whose presence greatly determines the desire to listen and see her to the end.
She is the very image, the daughter of Georgia's stable, then unstable, then tragic and, at present, difficult era, which has passed through the age of parental care and pleasant carelessness, responsibility and self-establishment in society, probably a familiar, not so easy way and, like all of us, a sunny one. She is quite attached to her existence, familiar and close order. However, one thing is Mziuri – a character, a heroine, and the other is the reality surrounding her, which is not influenced by the mood of the characters, but by the desire to get thought-provoking and not very hopeful answers to questions of various contents.
It was written on the platform of one of the film festivals that the main character of this film is a courageous social researcher who enters the homes of unknown people and asks controversial questions.
We cannot say anything specifically about courage – this quality of the main character because tolerating discomfort or being ignored by people is naturally part of her specialty. Instead, how contentious the questions can be, which often already imply the content of the answer, is really interesting, and perhaps trendsetting, because then we must inevitably expect vulnerable people and emotional, forward-looking fears. And so it happens, albeit partially. It seems that most of the characters in the film answer common questions with the general expected content, but rarely reveal anything strongly negative: yes, in well-kept, plain, but below-average interiors, retired ladies think that all rights should be protected but the housewife of the other house believes that the interests of non-acceptance should not be strange to her. At the same time, no one calls for aggression and violence. They are also well aware of the fact that social distress and unhappiness are present. Instead, it still boils down to the same, fairly monotonous questions: are you satisfied with your routine? The latter is also a rhetorical question. Not only in the next generation of Georgia, but in the whole world, they will probably answer us – no, because no one can be permanently satisfied with such issues related to existence and social topics. Moreover, in the same social group portrait.
A disarmingly honest view cannot be formed on the background of trending and responsive questions in the same society. Georgia has a diverse, contradictory, interesting and, most importantly, rich population with different opinions and life positions. Of course, any opinion is interesting, any person who creates a characteristic film portrait from the target group of a social survey, and these portraits would be much more interesting if it were not for the tendency of the content of the survey to be so accentuated.
Ketevan Trapaidze
