In many cases, the director captures what worries him, what he has seen or experienced, he fills the film with personal details and never shies away from subjectivity. Luka Kopaleishvili's student documentary, "A Little Bit About My Father" (2022), is clearly a personal work, where the author tells us about his father.
Definitely, this is a subjective work, the story of the director's family – a difficult, sad but interesting situation in which he lives. The director's father becomes the main protagonist, however, the film does not leave the feeling that the author is only telling his own story. It is already clear from the film title that it is the story of one man, but the topic is quite big and problematic, which seems to worry not only the director, but many of us too.
Merab Kopaleishvili is an artist who sells sweets in the market. A large part of his daily life is trade but he finds time for painting only when time and energy remain in him after returning from work. The entire time of the film is devoted to Merab's daily life – sorting chocolate, selling, communication with "colleagues," the way home, workplace, sculptures, painting, art.
No matter how many people enter the frame, no matter how many new images appear, our interest is always on Merab, who is not angry at the world about his life, but on the contrary, he does the same thing every day, routinely, hoping for better. While the viewer has a feeling of great injustice about the events in the main character’s life, the artist himself looks at everything with hope. It evokes more sympathy as not only injustice angers us but we also become his supporters, so that maybe one day what he wants so badly will come true.
In the first minutes of the film, the main character tells us stories about his life, personal views, memories, dreams, and the relationship between man and art. The main theme, around which the events develop, appears when Merab's dream is already known to the audience – the prospect of a personal exhibition intrudes into the artist's daily life. His greatest wish might come true and these works will be seen by the public for the first time.
"An exhibition of all this? Yes, it's a dream, realized or not realized, let's see how it will happen."
The director focuses on other, daily details, although, waiting for an answer will be in the background of the entire film. It is a kind of "endless cycle," where days follow each other, Merab spends twelve hours in the market, observes people, looks for muses, thinks, talks, cuts halva, etc.
Finally, it turns out that Merab Kopaleishvili's exhibition will not take place at this stage. His creations remain on the walls of the house, who knows for how long. At the end of the film, Merab sits in the empty space – "sometimes a dream remains a dream." The film has a sad ending, but the artist still hopes that if not now, he will organize a personal exhibition someday.
This story is not just one man’s "tragedy." This is the useless sadness of the entire Georgia, where artistic people are forced to do materially more favorable work in order to save their family and themselves, to disperse, diversify their talent, and make unfinished, unpainted, uncreated art the main problem of life.
Merab Kopaleishvili is the image of all those fathers who could not completely dedicate themselves to art, the image of all those fathers who chose devotion of the well-being of their children and family and not art.
As the artist says, "art means overcoming invisible things" and life might also be mean overcoming these "things," even the desire to paint, but instead you have to work in a store and sell sweets. The main thing is to look for happiness in work, even in selling chocolate, to look for something interesting, because "work is the only thing that does not betray you."
The young director's decision to make a film about his father not only highlights his father's personality, but also speaks for the director, because he also serves art. He is, in part, his father's colleague and understands exactly his every word about the artist’s fate, his life, achieved or unachieved results. The director himself is in the reality where the artist has to do everything except art.
Thus, with such personal statement does Luka Kopaleishvili fill one of his first films, where, in the end, "A Little Bit About My Father" becomes "A Little Bit About Myself” because both the director and the audience as well become not only observers of the story but direct participants.
Eva Gvritishvili
