Even the most unusual forms of the illusion of mood characteristic of a feature film, obey the firm conditions of reality-regardless of the quality of what color and compositional experimentation we are talking about. Even in the most extreme forms of convention, the basis of the compositional nature of light and shade and color is reality - even in the most extreme expression of surrealism to realism.
We cannot change this fact much. On the other hand, there is an unusually intense ability of cinema to find an artistic form of thinking that has come from any illusion to reality, which is as much characteristic of the latest period of Georgian cinema as it is of other stages of its existence - crisis, transition or other periods. It is a fact that the harsh realities of social breakdowns have been forming a subject of interest for Georgian directors for a long time and so it is now. Just as the most recent problems of modernity are still mainly the reality of the transformed recent past.
Tinatin Kajrishvili’s "Brides" is a feature film shot in 2014 and a prize winner of the Berlin International Film Festival (Panorama Audience Prize). This award has a certain significance as the associations of modern reality create great interest in the subject of the film.
Existence of prisoners' wives is one reality that can be generalized. The dramatic reality of Nutsa’s (Mari Kitia) existence, who is the main character of "Brides," is an abstract event - both ordinary and extraordinary, with its misfortune, unexpectedness and feelings. Everything we can see is tainted like cigarette smoke with the presence of eternal, dismantled and familiar things.
In itself, from the cognitive and socio-psychological point of view, the historical origin of this existence is twofold: from the 1980s to the latest period of the 21st century. The attitude towards the prisoner and being a member of the prisoner's family or simply being in the prisoner's environment is not a socially abstract event and this fact, in turn, is still misunderstood by a large part of the society. Therefore, anything related to this event should naturally arouse the viewer’s interest.
It's a strange feeling - from the first episode of the film, where the women sheltered on the hillock are waiting for their "closed ones" glued to the prison bars and staring at the deaf walls with eyes full of desperate expectation, all the micro-environments artistically conceived by Tina Kajrishvili leave a feeling of empty space. Presumably, Goga's (Giorgi Maskharashvili) depressive-dramatic condition, as well as his parents’ unkempt appearance move in this empty space - without support. All the characters who are given a large or small amount of time leave the impression of moving figures in this empty space. It is difficult to feel this world from the side, with its disturbed prosperity and poorly painted walls but it is interesting. However, there is, in general, one peculiarity of the topic interpretation and the danger in itself, which contains attempts to show disorganized existence - the time shown in this way, thus the "empty" environment carries the mood but brings less feeling of realism. And it doesn't matter how scrupulously or with how sharp a sense of reality it is processed (production designer - Giga Iakobashvili). Conversely, any detail that includes the prison shots, for example, seems to bear signs of exaggeration. The reason for this can be the episode of brides and women of different ages coming down the stairs after the legal formality of the marriage in the prison, along the amazing, untidy and plastered walls - maybe the time through which we observe the details of this space is too long. Or Nutsa and Goga's rendezvous, the very dramatic, graphic angle of the separated hands in the prison bars, a glimpse of which would have been enough to keep that realistic mood, not pedaling on them.
As much as the sequence of Nutsa's feelings is naturally intense and even feels apathetic at times, so little pathos seeps into the equal sequence of their dates. Even silences that imply dramatic content seem a bit over-emphasized in long close-ups. This does not mean that what we see is less interesting thematically and dramaturgically - again and again an empty, cold space with people covered in it like in blankets. All this might be a metaphor for a large part of the society that has moved from the ghosts of the past to the present, who is constantly searching for stability, or is completely alien to that blissful peace that people living in an unstable environment have.
One way or another, Tinatin Kajrishvili makes us remember all the cruelty of the passing time from time to time with this disorganization, discomfort, which can be felt even in dirty clothes.
Whether we like it or not, large part of the reality of Georgian cinema, is in a strong, firm relationship with all the events that we went through, what happened, what did not happen but it lives in a part of our consciousness... everything that exists next to us is a part of us. In the early 1980s, this kind of familiar social reality began to exist on the screen and developed independently, whether everyone "noticed" its existence or not. "Brides" is not particularly and emphatically an artistic statement of a miserable life - that's really a good thing because the reality of the social ladder that comes from the prison and extends to a certain part of people cannot be well-furnished, comfortable, or characteristic of only Georgian reality. That is why its interpretation is a process characteristic of important and painful reality, which will allow us to follow the artistic transformation of specific topics and thoughts decades later.
Ketevan Trapaidze
