leilamehti

Sadistic, not funny. Don't bother. How about changing the title to: Catherine the Jackass

After the fall of USSR, Georgia finds itself in anarchy, degeneration, decay and depression. All of this is reflected in behavior of its people. The movie paints a bleak landscape at every level: widespread crime, dog-eat-dog atmosphere expressed in bread lines (survival of the fittest); domestic violence - resulted from economic woes + accepted culture of excessive male dominance and drinking; decline in schools (teacher judges and makes fun of students in front of the class, making unpatriotic comments about a student's father fighting in a war with Abghazia). Atmosphere of hopelessness prevails in Georgia except for beautiful, little 14 yo Eka with very sad face. She is the light in this land of darkness, representing Georgian hope and possibly a better future some day. She is not afraid to stand up to societal wrongs, question, support and protect her friends, speak out and shame others for their indifference toward their own society i.e. their country. Eka is the hidden goodness of Georgia, characterized by her mesmerizing dance at the wedding. She is a "uniter, not a divider", able to lift spirits and make her countrymen smile, cry and feel some kind of pride and emotion for their lost and forgotten Georgian-ness.

It seems that most viewers expected extensive plot development from this film which was not director's intention. This is an avant-garde film with allegories and room for interpretation. But it really wasn't that difficult to decipher through it, come on. The film opens up in France among sooo much beauty: castles, sea, arts, streets, human energy and a couple in love in these inspiring, magic surroundings. She is Ukranian-French. A dancer. Piano player. All of this is very romantic. They can't keep their hands off each other. Their attraction and chemistry are very strong - to the point that he take her back with him to Oklahoma. Then some time later - fast forward to Oklahoma, which shows a striking contrast to France, consisting of several notable differences: a) empty nothingness b) housing development of characterless, fenced in model homes c)ugly, toxic industrialization d)poor, uneducated, drug addicted underclass living in dilapidated housing among whom even a priest is losing his faith in God. None of the aforementioned are conducive to love and romance and thus the couple starts to lose their love and chemistry, resorting to discourse and fighting and ending up in resentment. Marina obviously experiences a culture shock, engages in irrational behavior and their relationship falls apart. Yes, Neil could've chosen Jane instead of Marina as his mate but there was something different about Marina which attracted him more to her than to Jane, who was more culturally compatible to him and that perhaps bored him.