Ochnebebis sasaplao
Georgia,
1997, 95 min
Shown in 1998
CREDITS
- dir
-
Georgi Khaindrava
- prod
-
Georgi Khaindrava
- scr
-
Georgi Khaindrava, Ivakli Solomonashvili
- cam
-
Georgi Khaindrava, Mikhail Magalashvili
- prod co
-
TMS Invest
- source
-
TMS Invest, 164 David Agmashenebeli Avenue 380064 Tbilisi, Republic of Georgia. FAX 9~5 32 950 324. EMAIL:TMS@lBERIAPAC.GE
-
COMMENTS
Eligible for the Skyy Prize.
OTHER
When the republic of Georgia declared war on the rebellious province of Abkhazia, many of the country’s young artists and intellectuals responded to their government’s call to fight. This would be surprising in the West, where the intelligentsia has a reflexive response against both patriotic summons in particular and war in general. But Georgian director Georgi Khaindrava shows the touching and tragic combination of idealism, passion and foolhardiness with which his nation’s best and brightest left for the front. But slowly, painfully, these sensitive, intelligent men come to grips with the fact that they have rushed into a vain, possibly wicked war—and that they have blood on their hands. Well-known Georgian actor Levan Abashidze is among those who were whipped into enthusiam by a young republic’s call to war, and Khaindrava follows his story most closely. In choosing an actor as the focus of this “documentary,” Khaindrava deliberately blurs the difference between fact and fiction. Just as the participants in the war must struggle to understand its real causes and to come to terms with tragic effects, the viewer is left to wonder where fiction ends and reality begins. However, the end of the film leaves no doubts about the war’s tragic consequences: A series of crosses appear, representing the untimely and unnecessary deaths of many who took part in the film.
FACTOID #35
The first film retrospective accompanying a tribute at the Festival was a Tribute to Warner Bros., featuring Jack L. Warner in person, October 26, 1966.
