27 Missing Kisses

A summer adventure for precocious fourteen year old Sibylla, when she goes to visit her aunt. lots of wise old sayings and superstitions. full moons. romance. local boy Mickey (who's a little nuts) has a crush on Sibylla, but she follows his father Alex (he's 41) around, spying on him constantly. Nutsa Kukhianidze, (Sibylla) was actually 17, and quite developed up front. and already has the eye of all the men in town. some beautiful music. so many leeches. pretty scenery. but there are so many locations listed, one can't be sure which scenes were filmed where. some silliness with sex toys. skulking around town, following the other locals. in this town, even the grim, disapproving higher ups aren't really so prim and proper. everyone here is a little quirky. which works. a fun little adventure. much ado about nothing, Republic of Georgia style. directed by Nana Dzhordzhadze. story by Irakli Kvirikadze. both from the Republic of Georgia.

I saw "27 Missing Kisses" tonight on a campus theatre. The main character, Sibylla played by Nutsa Kukhianidze, is a free-spirited tomboy who enlivens a small town where she is visiting her aunt. I found the film to be edgy, zany with nonsequiturs, and interesting though perhaps self-referentially absorbed. It was reasonably believable and interesting, and some of it was quite funny, but I didn't find it to be particularly memorable. I probably missed key cultural context, though the film's narrative style did remind me a bit of Russian writer Nikolai Gogol. The setting and photography were quite appealing.

A film that captures the sexual awakening of adolescence, with a 14-year-old girl (Nutsa Kukhianidze) developing a crush for the 41-year-old father of her boyfriend. This is put alongside what seems to be the sexual awakening of a town in a former Soviet social republic, coincident with the screening of the film Emmanuelle. Maybe there's a political message in here along the lines of Westernization and freedom, but mostly I saw it as a coming of age tale, one with an undercurrent of pride in Georgian culture. We see people laughing and unperturbed even though busses and shepherds are shelled by an out of control military leader on a nearby hillside, and a father is unfazed when his teenage son grabs a gun, saying simply "think before you shoot." There is something stoic at the bottom of all the zaniness. The film has moments that are surreal and others which are comedic, and it's never boring.

Kukhianidze is a gorgeous young woman but as the character is 14 and the actor was 17, I thought the number of scenes where she appeared topless was a little gratuitous. Maybe they're in there to show this transitional period where a girl who is still immature is now in a beautiful young body, something emphasized by her mother still sponging her down in a bathing scene. The scenes where she peeks around a corner to spy on others engaged in illicit activities also add to this, and her eyes convey quite a bit of a fearless, playful, and yet awkward girl. It's a compelling performance and she made the movie for me.

In an interesting parallel, Director Nana Jorjadze is pretty fearless herself, with all of the film's bawdiness and the ethereal images she puts up on the screen. At times I felt the story line was a little too silly, such as the penis getting stuck in the ball bearings, and I wish there had been a slight tonal shift to emotions. One of the young women (Amaliya Mordvinova) has a habit of kicking up her long legs provocatively, and that seems to match Jorjadze's unabashed, carefree spirit though. She also gives us a lovely touch at the end through the narrator, communicating that these times in our lives, precious though they be in our memories, slip away from us.

27 Missing Kisses shows that Europeans are still capable of producing strong little pictures about life in general as lived by ordinary people . Much of the charm of the film lies in the recognition of man's ability of making a complete fool of himself. The natural beauty of the leading character, Sibylla, her disarming honesty in her doomed love for an older man makes one wonder at the forced and unnaturally contrived lives we all lead. Never preachy or heavy-handed, sentimental nor crude, but always utterly believable, its straightforwardness is deceiving. The village in which most of the action takes place is filled with its fair share of funnily sketched characters. Entertaining as they are, they only serve as distractions from what lies beneath.

The clever and convincing script, the sober but beautiful photography and the natural performances combined with the assured direction make this German/Georgian co-production a little gem of which any big name director would have been proud. I'm happy to say they still make them this way.

27 Missing Kisses is a good pastime if you want a different film that drags some folklore along it. It's funny, but tragic too. I can't say I loved it to the bone, but I found it interesting for sure.

What happens in a little town in Caucasus when a teen girl falls in love with a teen boy's father and the teen boy with her? Such an interesting subject. The director doesn't get stuck on some particular frames, yet he still fails a little when trying to make the film flow. So it could have been better. But I would still recommend it to those who are bored or Hollywood garbage. Don't expect a masterpiece, and don't expect to to laugh your rear off either. But you still won't regret watching this flick anyway.

7.5/10 from me