Tbilisi-Tbilisi

I saw this film at the 2006 Palm Springs International Film Festival. Levan Zaqareishvili is it's Tbilisi born and Tblisi resident Director/Writer/Producer and since it about a man who is writing a film you have to wonder if this may be a thinly veiled film based on Zaquareishvilli and some of his experiences. This film is slow paced and very dark and brooding but it keeps your attention. There are some interesting characters like the retired professor who is now a market vendor, the old woman selling sunflower seeds, the gang of delinquents and the alcoholic sister of the gang leader, the bully security guard, the marketplace drummer and the deaf vagrant and her little brother in this bleak look at the underbelly and harsh life of Tbilisi. Again you have to wonder if some of these character subjects are drawn from real life. Segments of the film that represent what the central character is writing for his movie are shot in black and white that gives it a dramatic and documentary style effect. I would give this a 7.0 out of scale of 10. It is a good film and I would recommend it.

Something very painful for me , for teenager now living in Tbilisi, great film about of dark times which withdrawed Georgia for decades, about absolute anarchy which made professors selling margarines, and the ministers transformed to salesmen. Even now here are lot's of families in city who's lives where destroyed by that times and have to be poor for many years, because they sold everything... Who can imagine what did the artists feel in these times, the professor gives his dissertation to saleswoman of sunilower, Why? because that time she needs it more, art lost meaning, everything became materialistic, poor robs poorer and no one cares about that. And someone with big fat stomach, crosses himself when hears of tragedy and then... then he sleeps calm ... Dark 90's of Georgia, of oligarchic state with all of it's brutality. Nothing romantic, without hope, Pure , Pessimist Georgian neorealism.

R.I.P Levan Zaqareishvili

Bleak, oppressive, and utterly without hope, this was Georgia's submission to the Academy last year for Best Foreign Film. The story, such as it is, concerns a filmmaker writing a script, which we see played out in black-and-white segments throughout the film, as he travels around the city meeting friends and crooked politicians and getting beaten by the police because he fits the profile of a drug addict. Every scene is more harrowing than the one that came before it. This film depicts a Tbilisi of thieves, rapists, and drug addicts with corruption at every level of authority, on its last leg with a dying past and an aborted future. As a film it's not perfect, but its only real problems are mere technical issues like dialogue sync. It's definitely a powerful statement -- I suppose the reason it hasn't been distributed anywhere is simply because it's just too bleak. The very end of the credits read, in large Roman letters, "S.O.S."

I am Georgian myself (from Tbilisi,actually) and this is why it was so painful for me to watch this movie. I am almost certain that the screenwriter and most of the characters are "painted" from the real persons. After all, I have also witnessed beggars in the streets and workless artists. Of course, this is not a complete picture of Tbilisi,but since later is often pictured as sunny and beautiful, I appreciate the filmmaker's courage to show the ugly side of what's happening in his own back yard. Doubtless, technology needs more work;however,taking in mind the situation in my city(as depicted in this movie),I am thankful that its release was possible at all, even with bad film and most likely underpaid actors and that no matter how dark it is in the streets of Tbilisi,some filmmakers still make it.