1980s black comedy unravels the brutal legacy of a despot who is as ludicrous as his crimes are appalling
The sense of an ending is what this fascinating film delivers: an unimaginably painful ending and the moral reckoning that has to follow. This dreamlike satire from Georgian film-maker Tengiz Abuladze, was made in 1984 but suppressed for three years before release. This was not so much for its coded critique of Stalinism – of which the Soviet authorities had long since learned to parrot their regretful disapproval – but of the pusillanimous loyalty to the Stalinist memory that persisted in the Ussr for generations, and the taboo that even then forbade serious reassessment of Stalinist crimes and exhumation of its buried horror. Now Repentance is revived and its strange theatricality and madness are more disturbing than ever.
Partly a bizarre parable, it is an absurdist social-surrealist attack on power and state violence. Like Blue Mountains,...
The sense of an ending is what this fascinating film delivers: an unimaginably painful ending and the moral reckoning that has to follow. This dreamlike satire from Georgian film-maker Tengiz Abuladze, was made in 1984 but suppressed for three years before release. This was not so much for its coded critique of Stalinism – of which the Soviet authorities had long since learned to parrot their regretful disapproval – but of the pusillanimous loyalty to the Stalinist memory that persisted in the Ussr for generations, and the taboo that even then forbade serious reassessment of Stalinist crimes and exhumation of its buried horror. Now Repentance is revived and its strange theatricality and madness are more disturbing than ever.
Partly a bizarre parable, it is an absurdist social-surrealist attack on power and state violence. Like Blue Mountains,...
- 2/8/2024
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
The news of the death of the last Ussr leader Mikhail Gorbachev on Tuesday got little attention outside of the former Soviet Bloc. Thirty-three years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, the world has moved on. But for a generation of us growing up behind the Iron Curtain, he changed the course of our lives and allowed us to pursue careers we never thought possible.
When you type Gorbachev’s name into Google, the search engine’s top suggestion is “Gorbachev Pizza Hut,” a reference to the famous 1998 TV commercial featuring the politician who became the first and only President of the Soviet Union.
In it, he and a little girl walk into a restaurant and share a pizza. As older and younger patrons recognize him, they begin to debate in Russian, with an older man arguing that because of Gorbachev, there is economic turmoil and political instability, and...
When you type Gorbachev’s name into Google, the search engine’s top suggestion is “Gorbachev Pizza Hut,” a reference to the famous 1998 TV commercial featuring the politician who became the first and only President of the Soviet Union.
In it, he and a little girl walk into a restaurant and share a pizza. As older and younger patrons recognize him, they begin to debate in Russian, with an older man arguing that because of Gorbachev, there is economic turmoil and political instability, and...
- 8/31/2022
- by Nellie Andreeva
- Deadline Film + TV
Ivana Miloš, Poppy of the Underworld (2022), monotype, gouache, and collage with poppy flower heads on paper.Sleeping Beauty"And now my beauties, something with poison in it I think, with poison in it, but attractive to the eye and soothing to the smell . . . poppies, poppies, poppies will put them to sleep."—The Wicked Witch of the West, The Wizard of OzThose who came back from the cave of Hypnos, god of sleep, couldn’t tell their kings and families waiting in the world above about its entrance, which was covered with bright red poppies drawing water from the flowing stream of Lethe, the river of forgetfulness. They simply forgot or were found in a strange trance mumbling in foreign tongues, somnambulant shadows of their former selves, wearing a distant but happy smile on their petrified faces. When faced with the seductive, herbaceous plants, which tilted their head to the ground...
- 8/15/2022
- MUBI
Zaza Khalvasi was born in Batumi, Georgia (formerly Ussr) in 1957. In 1979, he graduated from Tbilisi State University faculty of philology, then completed a course at Tbilisi Rustaveli Institute of Literature. In 1982 graduated from Tbilisi State Institute faculty of film directing, studied under two prominent Georgian directors’ supervision – Tengiz Abuladze and Rezo Chkheidze. In 1977-2004 he was employed by the Film Studio Georgian Film, where he directed “There Where I Live” and “Mizerere”. His film “Namme” premiered at Tokyo Iff. Currently he divides time between his art and teaching at Batumi State Art University.
On the occasion of “Namme” screening at Aperture: Asia & Pacific Film Festival, we speak with him about the environment, water, tradition, slow cinema and many other topics
Ali, the town’s water healer, says at one point in the film how important it is to be “in sync” with the environment. How did you manage to translate...
On the occasion of “Namme” screening at Aperture: Asia & Pacific Film Festival, we speak with him about the environment, water, tradition, slow cinema and many other topics
Ali, the town’s water healer, says at one point in the film how important it is to be “in sync” with the environment. How did you manage to translate...
- 7/17/2018
- by Rouven Linnarz
- AsianMoviePulse
Titles to include world premiere of The Summer of Frozen Fountains.
The 19th Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival (Nov 13-29) is spotlighting Georgian cinema for its 19th edition, including the world premiere of Vano Burduli’s The Summer of Frozen Fountains, which plays in competition.
A retrospective, stretching back to 1929, includes 14 titles such as Tengiz Abuladze’s 1977 drama The Wishing Tree.
Mikheil Giorgadze, Georgia’s Minister of Culture and Monument Protectorate of Georgia, discussed the complexities of both Georgia and Estonia’s film industry in a speech at the opening ceremony on Friday (Nov 13).
“It is particularly emotional for me that Georgian film is represented at this prestigious festival in Estonia as our countries are connected with special relations and common history,” said Giorgadze.
“I often say that culture is the language used for dialogue between civilised, developed societies. One brilliant example of inter-cultural cooperation is the Georgian-Estonian film Tangerines [featured in the Forum section]. It is only the beginning.”
Giorgadze went on...
The 19th Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival (Nov 13-29) is spotlighting Georgian cinema for its 19th edition, including the world premiere of Vano Burduli’s The Summer of Frozen Fountains, which plays in competition.
A retrospective, stretching back to 1929, includes 14 titles such as Tengiz Abuladze’s 1977 drama The Wishing Tree.
Mikheil Giorgadze, Georgia’s Minister of Culture and Monument Protectorate of Georgia, discussed the complexities of both Georgia and Estonia’s film industry in a speech at the opening ceremony on Friday (Nov 13).
“It is particularly emotional for me that Georgian film is represented at this prestigious festival in Estonia as our countries are connected with special relations and common history,” said Giorgadze.
“I often say that culture is the language used for dialogue between civilised, developed societies. One brilliant example of inter-cultural cooperation is the Georgian-Estonian film Tangerines [featured in the Forum section]. It is only the beginning.”
Giorgadze went on...
- 11/16/2015
- ScreenDaily
Soak up the Sun: Pialat’s Palme d’Or Winning Spiritual Anguish
As part of Cohen Media Group’s Maurice Pialat retrospective, perhaps the most significant title showcased in the lineup is his infamous 1987 title, Under the Sun of Satan. Instantly reviled after winning the coveted Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival (with a jury made up of such heavy-hitters as Elem Klimov, Jerzy Skolimowski, Theo Angelopoulos, and Norman Mailer), where Pialat was jeered by a disapproving crowd, the title quickly lapsed into obscurity following a continually tepid critical reception.
Perhaps Pialat’s austere and increasingly deliberate examination of mental and spiritual anguish told through the perspective of a bumbling priest whose blasphemous predicament proves only the presence of Satan rather than God was as simultaneously too old fashioned as it was inconveniently provocative. Based on a 1927 novel by French author Georges Bernanos, Pialat’s treatment does seem...
As part of Cohen Media Group’s Maurice Pialat retrospective, perhaps the most significant title showcased in the lineup is his infamous 1987 title, Under the Sun of Satan. Instantly reviled after winning the coveted Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival (with a jury made up of such heavy-hitters as Elem Klimov, Jerzy Skolimowski, Theo Angelopoulos, and Norman Mailer), where Pialat was jeered by a disapproving crowd, the title quickly lapsed into obscurity following a continually tepid critical reception.
Perhaps Pialat’s austere and increasingly deliberate examination of mental and spiritual anguish told through the perspective of a bumbling priest whose blasphemous predicament proves only the presence of Satan rather than God was as simultaneously too old fashioned as it was inconveniently provocative. Based on a 1927 novel by French author Georges Bernanos, Pialat’s treatment does seem...
- 9/29/2015
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
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