Acting
Erotic Avant Garde Cinema By Shota Kalandadze.
This musical is based on old Georgian vaudevilles and plays. The early 20th century. Old Tiflis is in confusion and turmoil. A mysterious fairy is helping the poor Pavle’s family: real wood is burning in his old, neglected fireplace, wherein a pot with meat would suddenly appear. The good fairy is impersonated by laundress Vardo who helps not only the poor Pavle, but other families in this quarter as well. Vardo is known to many people in the town, but no one ever suspected that she was capable of performing miracles. The film’s colorful folk melodies, merry songs and fiery dances leave no viewer indifferent. Starring in the leading role is the great Georgian actress Sofiko Chiaureli.
A young boxer and his girlfriend seem to be bored with the monotony of their dates, walks, and life. So he invents a girl with a romantic suitcase, with whom he supposedly fell in love, and she invents an equally romantic soldier, whom she supposedly likes. At the end of the film, when the lovers meet at the train station, they seem to have been transformed by the cross-pollination of dreams—he is a soldier, and she is leaving for somewhere, and, naturally, when she appears on the platform, she turns out to be the girl from his dreams with a suitcase in her hand.
The film's characters are elderly people, one of whom lives in Georgia and the other in Israel. Both receive letters with the same content: a stranger asks them for financial help...
A group of geologists discover oil under the fields where Sosana, the aged and anachronistic father, raises his herd with his unhappy wife, her friend and his growing boy with whom he displays a wonderful rapport. The land is invaded by big machinery that feels remarkably alien to the serene and natural aesthetic of the valley. The family all enjoys the pleasures and storytelling capacity a slide projector grants them, but it too feels distinctly out of place in a town with no plumbing.
