Love is not an eternal feeling. It fades with time and gets lost in the swamp of family problems. Sometimes people try to save the relationship, but sometimes all the efforts end in failure. And still, what is love or what is it like? Perhaps, the character of Eldar Shengelaya's film "The Eccentrics," Khristofore Mgaloblishvili would say in its defense that love is vertical and rotating, but sometimes it is not like that at all. It is eternal longing or one big disappointment. Sometimes it looks like porcelain, it breaks easily. It survives only when both of the couple want it. The question is how love can save people when love itself needs to be saved.
The plot of Tinatin Kajrishvili's film "Horizon" (2018) depicts selfless love. The movie is gray. Every detail in it makes a person think about the futility of life. What is the point of life if it has to end suddenly? None.
The couple of the main characters, Giorgi and Anna, broke up. The man tried to restore the relationship for the sake of his children or himself but he was rejected by the other side. Moreover, he was replaced. His place was taken by Niko, Anna's new boyfriend. The film does not show the reason for the family destruction. Only the result is discussed, with new examples. It is not known who was at fault or what actually happened. The plot does not have a main conflict, the knot is immediately unraveled and it is difficult to understand where the film begins.
Giorgi makes up his mind and leaves the city. He tries to return several times, but he does not or cannot return. He knows that there is no place for him anymore. Anna is happy, she will soon get married to Niko. Here Giorgi realizes that their “love story” is really over. He doesn't try to contact her anymore, his hopes are disappearing. Ironically, when he wakes up and tries not to think about his ex-wife, she still calls and reminds herself for various reasons. It's interesting who can't move on – Giorgi, who leaves the city to live somewhere else and tries to stay away from his ex-wife, or Anna, who always calls on the phone while hiding her happy life, comes to see Giorgi, buys him a new hat, and then stays with him in the hotel.
The film reeks of death and loneliness. Regardless of the season, everything around is cold and gray. None of them have a family: neither Jano, nor Valiko or Larisa; Marika has no one, neither does she have a house, the same with Giorgi. When Jano asks if he has a family, Giorgi keeps silent, smiles sadly, as if he is getting smaller and answers that he doesn't know anymore.
There are no happy moments in the story. No one is happy anywhere. Everyone has their sadness with them. Valiko does not have a wife, Larisa's husband died and only the photograph remains from him. Jano's wife got a divorce and took the children with her. Giorgi was replaced by Niko and now he takes the children on vacation. He hugs Anna and tries to create a family idyll. He also tries to be friendly with Giorgi, he asks to stay to watch football, but formally, in Anna's eyes, to appear a good man just for the sake of it. Niko knew very well what kind of awkward aura they would bring with them, and for this very reason, Giorgi would not stay. Larisa's death was an extra burden for an already heavy film. The director once again reminded the audience of the existence of death. Instead of going to the wedding, the woman, hugging her husband's photo, died in bed.
Larisa's death was an extra burden for an already heavy film. The director once again reminded the audience of the existence of death. Instead of going to the wedding, the woman, hugging her husband's photo, died in bed.
Life continued as usual, the seasons changed, time passed, as if there was hope for a new relationship, which would relatively melt the ice created by the movie, but suddenly Giorgi also died. One cold, snowy winter day, a man died in the snow by the water. His death was like the fall of a cave. Now all hope of a happy ending is gone. Larisa was no longer alive and neither was Giorgi. Valiko probably thought that he would die first, saying that he would not see the spring, but he had to bury two people. The house was sad again. Nobody was happy anymore. There was no crackling of wood and no one was blowing balloons.
Giorgi's heart could not withstand it and he died. What hurt him more? That Anna didn't love her anymore or that he was replaced. As if nothing has changed for the children either. Mother stopped calling the man. Everyone from the city forgot. Sandro never came to him. He felt that his old life had ended and a new one had begun. What was left for the children and Anna after her death? Giorgi was not buried in the city. He was buried next to Larisa in the cemetery of dreams and love by the sea. Only a watch, old things, a painting and many memories remained from him.
In the room filled with a heavy atmosphere and tears, in which the burial place of a man is decided, words can be heard almost in a whisper, which have nothing to do with the story and seem to be thought out. "We were going to register our marriage," says Marika, dressed in black, with a frozen face, looking at Anna. It turns out that Giorgi was also thinking about continuing his life with a new person, and there was no indication of this in any part of the story. Only at the end did it become clear about the man's future plans. He wanted to build a house and have a different life, but the audience never saw a single shot of that. It is also interesting why the director did not try to make Giorgi happy and continue his life, like Anna did? Why did Giorgi die and not Anna? Or after all, what was the need for any of them to die? The story in the movie lacks unfolding. It was as if it only revolved around Anna and Giorgi until the last moment. Only at the end it turned out that the man also fell in love with someone else. However, it seemed that grief over Anna and her rejection had taken over.
It is difficult to say whether the movie is good or bad. It is a manifesto of love devoid of emotion, mixed with death, another reminder that nothing lasts forever and everything must come to an end.
The film "Horizon" is like a closed circle where everyone is unhappy. Either no one tries to get out of the circle or it doesn't work for anyone. The only ones who managed to escape from this circle and fly away are the ducks raised by Larisa. Somewhere beyond the vast horizon they are still free and probably relatively happy.
The movie may not have had a Hollywood happy ending but there was no need to make the already gray plot so heavy. Love seemed to hide somewhere in the corner and didn't even look at people anymore.
Barbare Kalaijishvili
