Freedom is a state that is hard to reach. People try to be in this state throughout their lives. Sometimes they manage it, sometimes not. Often, the state structure forces individuals to exist in a difficult situation. During the period of Soviet Union, citizens were in an information vacuum and thought that everything coming from Europe was bad and unacceptable. The state turned a blind eye to people. They lived in a country where gospel and music of free country were banned. They prayed silently,...

ESCAPE THAT DOESN'T FEEL LIKE FREEDOM Read More

The topic of emigration is widely discussed in cinema. This problem is constantly relevant, not only feature films, but documentaries as well are made about it. Reflecting the fears of people who are ready to leave their homeland and go in search of a better life can be shown honestly in documentary films because the person himself tells his own story, the path he has taken, brings his inner emotions to the surface, consequently, it is possible to convey...

IN PURSUIT OF A DREAM Read More

The documentary film made by Tinatin and Khvicha Emiridze, "Respublika" was shot in 2021, when the world was in complete pandemic lockdown and waiting for new cataclysms... However, as always, and not only then, waiting for a disaster is a usual thing, for a usual over-burdened environment. And yet, the main character of "Respublika" is an unusually thoughtful son of ...

THE STORY OF A GOOD MAN'S GOOD NATURE Read More

People always have to leave someone, change the environment. Sometimes they do it by their own will, sometimes by force. They become entangled in a network of relationships and cannot find a way out, they do not know how to return to where they belong or they know but cannot return. In many cases, the majority of society has to fight for survival. They give up everything in order to make both ends...

COMPULSION Read More

The conflict of generations is one of the eternal and important topics in art. Misunderstandings between parents and children are not so rare, and the older the child grows, the more common it becomes. Many books have been written about it and hundreds of films have been made, so it is very difficult to create something unique. Soso Bliadze's film, "Three Steps" (2017) is an ordinary representative of this category. Imagine how difficult it is for a teenager who, at the same time, thinks about everything, not only adjusting to the...

TEENAGE ON THE POVETRY LINE Read More

What do the words, such as: a bee, kindness, radiates, educator, intelligent, simplicity, pearl, an orphan, a hero, noble, versatile, diligent, self-sacrifice, aristocracy, an old oak, faithful, a priest, a writer, a musician – that people say in Georgian or Italian at the beginning of this film have in common? While hearing each word, we can see its printed version and its Italian or Georgian translation from the dictionary, which suddenly...

IN THE BEGINNING WAS THE WORD Read More

"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 ...

MZIURI FROM GEORGIA Read More

Cinema art differs from other fields as it is the most open field to everyone. Anyone, a representative of any profession can fit into the role of a director and this is a completely usual thing in the history of cinema. Franko Zeffirelli was an architect, Otar Ioseliani was a mathematician, and Christopher Nolan was a philologist of the English language. All this is explained by the fact that...

DRAMA ABOUT THE DRUMMER Read More

The main component of a film is the closely related story line. In order to consider a film completed, it is necessary to raise some kind of conflict in it and the developed events should be similar to the ways of its resolution. Ioseb (Soso) Bliadze's film "A Room Of My Own" (2022) does not fit these standards. It's not a single film, but a collage of two films and several themes, and it's missing more than enough to make it look like a complete, edited, composite work. The main storyline of the first part depicts Beka and Tina’s love story. "Love" is said a little too loudly. Their relationship is far from...

NOTHING Read More

The Use of mythological symbols in world cinema is not really new. Fortunately, some similar examples can be found in recent Georgian cinema. One of them is Sandro Suladze's short film, "The Watchers" (2021) which deals with this issue from a different perspective. Georgian diverse mythological characters allow to present the topic in many ways. After all, every region...

MYTH AS A COLLISION WITH REALITY Read More