Lana Goghoberidze
Directing
Biography
Lana Gogoberidze (Georgian: ლანა ღოღობერიძე) (born October 13, 1928, Tbilisi) is a Georgian film director and politician. She is the daughter of Nutsa Gogoberidze, another famous female Georgian director. Gogoberidze's father Levan Gogoberidze was murdered as a part of the Great Purge in 1937, while her mother was sent to a prison camp for twelve years. She was first sent to an orphanage and later taken up by her aunts. She also wanted to become a director, but the relevant education was not accessible to her because both her parents had been persecuted. She instead studied English and American literature, including the work of Walt Whitman, at Tbilisi State University. Following the death of Stalin, she could go on to study at the Department of Film-making of Moscow State University, from which she graduated in 1958. Gogoberidze headed the Director's Studio at the Rustaveli Theatre School, Tbilisi, in 1975. In 1988, she became President of the International Association of Women Directors. She was elected to the Parliament of Georgia from 1992 to 1995. From 1996 to 2000, she was a member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. In 2004, she served as Georgia's Ambassador to France. Gogoberidze's fiction and documentary movies have won several international awards. Her film Day Is Longer Than Night was entered into the 1984 Cannes Film Festival. In the same year, she was a member of the jury at the 34th Berlin International Film Festival. She also holds the State Award of the USSR, the State Award of the Georgian SSR, the People's Artist of the Republic of Georgia and the French Legion of Honour. Gogoberidze was married beginning in 1958 to the architect Vladimir Aleksi-Meskhishvili (died 1978). She has two daughters, with Salomé Alexi also becoming a director.
Known For
In Georgia during WWII Zurikela, an orphan boy, meets Khatia, a blind girl, and vows to help her to see again.
I See the Sun
This glasnost-era documentary, which incorporates footage from films from the 1920s through the 1980s, looks at the history of women in Russian cinema through the eyes of Russian women directors, actors, and scriptwriters. The film’s title refers to a WWII slogan about women doing the work of absent men in the fields and at home. Featuring Kira Muratova, Natalia Ryazantseva, Inna Churikova, Nonna Mordyukova, and others.
I Am an Ox, I Am a Horse, I Am a Man, I Am a Woman
The story of VGIK teachers and students about the acting profession.
VGIK: Teachers and Students Talk About the Profession
A cult of diners, restaurants and an excessive eating prevails in the City of Joy. Different contests are held in cooking the Georgian cuisine. Makro, a famous singer, decides to lend some spirituality to the city of gluttons. For that purpose she decides to set up a gallery of beautiful paintings in one of the city’s restaurants. The owners of the restaurant oppose that decision, but due to Makro’s agility the tenants of the city carry the paintings to the new museum.
The Little Incident
Elene is an 80-year-old writer who lives with her family, forced to stay home due to health conditions. Her comfort is cracked when her daughter's mother-in-law, Miranda, a former Soviet official, moves into the apartment, and Elene receives an unexpected call from an old love interest, Archil.
Golden Thread
Zura, a son of a rich businessman, steals a car of his father’s friend to amuse his classmates. When informed about it, the school principal discards him from the bike tournament. Nevertheless, Zura’s father manages to persuade her to allow his son to participate and even succeeds in bribing his championship. Zura’s classmates know that he became a champion undeservedly but can’t do anything about it. Only Khatuna, his alleged girlfriend, and Lexo, Zura’s friend, dare to protest against it. Their lack of loyalty enrages Zura and in the rush of the blood he crashes his father’s car. The accident takes Laxo’s life. Zura’s father does his best to save his son from deserved punishment but the first one against his decision is Zura himself.
When Almonds Blossomed
This somber story of love lost forever is set against the backdrop of the changes that Communism brought to the state of Georgia in the former USSR after the 1917 Revolution. Eva and Archil are deeply in love and they pledge to be with each other always. After they marry, Archil dies suddenly and Eva is left alone and childless. Along comes the ruthless Spiridon who romances Eva and marries her - though his cold and cruel spirit break Eva's naturally buoyant self, until she sullenly eats alone, and avoids intimacy with her husband as much as possible. They adopt a daughter, who does not take sides between her glum mother and silent father. When the Communist cadres enter their village to promote the ideals of the October revolution, Eva starts to warm to her husband a little because he joins in that movement. Then her husband commits the fatal error of revealing a previous crime - an error that will later cause their grown daughter to question her parents' strange behavior.
A Day Longer Than Night
Set in 1937 Stalinist Georgia, the film traces the parallel destinies of a mother, condemned by the government as "an enemy of the people" and exiled to a work camp in Siberia, and her daughter, who meanwhile is sent to an orphanage. Arriving at the overcrowded work camp, the mother and other women who are not considered strong enough to be labourers, must journey still farther, crossing the icy Siberian landscape in search of food and shelter. At the same time, the daughter escapes the orphanage and returns to her former home, where she finds that a KGB officer has taken up residence. He protects her and an uneasy rapport between them develops—one of abhorrence and attraction, need and suspicion.
The Waltz on the Petschora
A three-part feature film by Georgian director Lana Ghoghoberidze, dedicated to the 40th anniversary of the Soviet Union. The film is based on Leo Qiacheli's short story "Princess Maya" and Archil Sulakauri's novels "Doves" and "Fresco". These three stories are separated by a 20-20 year interval (1921, 1941, 1961).
Under One Sky
Tbilisi, early 1980s. From the outside, everything seems calm, but behind this tranquillity there is turmoil. Manana, who used to be a movie star, is no longer remembered by any director. Her childhood friend Rusudan suffers from loneliness despite a successful scientific career. Manana's aunt, Matiko, mourns her late husband. Her daughter, 19-year-old Salome, and her friends are also facing life's difficulties. Through strange coincidences, the lives of the film's characters become intertwined...
Full Circle
A theater director with a normal middle-class life in Tbilisi becomes increasingly disturbed after witnessing a murder, obsessing about whether he could have done anything to prevent it.
Transfiguration
Sophiko, a well-known journalist, seems to be more close to many of her respondents when they need her advice than to her family members. All engrossed in her work, she suddenly finds out that she is losing her husband who has started a love affair with another woman. Of course, it strikes her badly but life never lets her to concentrate on her personal problems.
Some Interviews on Personal Matters
Famous mountaineers Simon and Alexandra Lomidze were tragically caught in an avalanche while climbing Tetnuldi. The avalanche swept Simon and his friend into the abyss, leaving Simon’s younger brother, Alyosha, deeply inspired by the diary entries of his deceased brother. Alyosha, who had never been particularly fond of mountaineering, was determined to conquer Tetnuldi in his brother’s memory. This inspired a series of expeditions to conquer other peaks, including Ushba, Shkheldi, and many more. The following mountaineers participated in these expeditions: M. Anuprikov, I. Arkin, G. Akhvlediani, G. Gulbani, G. Deberli, P. Khazarov, I. Lapshenikov, I. Nemsitsveridze, V. Mukhin, and G. Khutsishvili.
Conquerors of the Peaks
Greatness paired with modesty: 93 years old and a daughter, world-famous director Lana remembers her mother Nutsa, Georgia’s first female filmmaker. A cinema legacy that revolves around being human in dark times: feminist, loving, critical of violence.
Mother and Daughter, or the Night Is Never Complete
Tamara looks after and old woman, Paola, and sends money to her husband and three kids. Suddenly her husband, Valiko dies in an accident. As an illegal immigrant, Tamara can not go to mourn him and decides to do it by cell phone.
Felicità
Lana Gogoberidze's thesis film about Gelati Monastery, a medieval monastic complex near Kutaisi in the Imereti region of western Georgia.
Gelati
TV documentary about architect Lado Aleksi-Meskhishvili, who was also a downhill skiing and boxing champion of Georgia, directed by his widow.