Eka & Natia, chronique d'une jeunesse géorgienne

Grzeli nateli dgeebi is a film from Georgia shown as In Bloom (2013) in the U.S. It was directed by Nana Ekvtimishvili and Simon Groß. Nana Ekvtimishvili is also the writer.

The film takes place in the Georgian city of Tbilisi in 1992, shortly after the disintegration of the U.S.S.R. Although life is not easy in Tbilisi--people are always standing in line waiting to buy bread--the movie doesn't depict widespread misery. Young people are attending school, and there's enough food on the table for everyone we meet. (I assume this is an accurate portrayal of the situation at the time, although I have no way of confirming this.)

The film is, at its core, a coming-of-age movie about two adolescent girls--Eka (Lika Babluani) and Natia (Mariam Bokeria). They are best friends and manage to protect each other, as much as possible, from male aggression and bullying.

Things don't work out very well, but I can't say more without spoiling the movie. I can say this much--there's a wedding in the film, and one of the friends gives the bride the gift of an incredible folkloric dance. It's very different--at least for me--from what I expected an Eastern European folk dance to look like, but it's truly beautiful.

We saw this movie at the excellent Dryden Theatre in Rochester, NY. However, it will work well on DVD. I noticed that most of the IMDb reviews of In Bloom came from Eastern European viewers. I don't know whether that's because the movie has had limited release in the U.S., or because U.S. viewers just haven't been motivated to review it.

The good news is that, as I write this review, its IMDb rating is a very high 8.1. So, those who have seen In Bloom really, really like it. That supports my suggestion to seek it out and view it if at all possible.

"In bloom" is a film about two 14 year old girls, Eka (played by Lika Babluani) and Natia (played by Miriam Bokeria). It is very much the same as "Show me love" (1998, Lukas Moodysson) in that the one with the biggest mouth at the end of the day has the least courage.

The society in which the girls grow up is however vastly different. The stable welfare state Sweden in "Show me love" versus Georgia in "In bloom". Georgia was just seperated from the disintegrating Soviet Union at the time in which the film is situated and happens to have a fairly masculine (and for adolescent girls thus restrictive) culture.

The same theme (two 14 year old girls) in a different setting (two vastly different countries) provides for two fascinating films. The two non professional actresses playing the two leading roles are marvelous. Especially the scene in which Eka performs a traditional dance on the weddingparty of Natia is realy beautiful. Beautiful is also the cinematography of Oleg Mutu, who co-operated with some of the directors of the Romanian wave a few years earlier.

Georgia is a relatively new film country, which is not surprising for a state that has become independant not so long ago. It should however not be forgotten that some famous directors from the Soviet era were born in Georgia, such as Mikhail Kalatozov and Sergei Parajanov.

I don't believe I've ever seen a Georgian film before watching In Bloom, but it was a great place to start and I'll certainly be looking more into Georgian cinema.

Like many coming of age stories the film focuses on two young teenage girls, but unlike most typical American or European films, the background for this film involves a country that has recently overcome one violent coup and is in the middle of a civil war. Screenwriter and co-director Nana Ekvtimishvili handles these details with lovely subtlety never making them feel heavy handed or overt. The camera- work for the film is also a knock out. The cinematographer, Oleg Mutu, is the same one responsible for the Romanian masterpiece 4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days, and he flawlessly employs the steady hand and long takes he used in that movie to great effect here. There is a beautiful 5 minute scene that is a one shot take of one of the girls dancing and it is the perfect meld of technical camera-work and physical performance.

I would be remiss of course not to mention the acting of the two lead girls who are simply fantastic. And while they are both strong actresses, it's Lika Babluani, in a much quieter performance, who is devastating. She has a face made for cinema and she can carry those long takes and fill them up with her presence without feeling laboured or strained.

Yes, indeed I just registered on IMDb so that I could write a review on this truly amazing movie. The movie is centered around two teenage girls making it through the war in Georgia (the country) from 1990's and their every day struggles at home, school and on the streets. The war is not on the front page though. It is in the background but it does not make the movie any less dramatic. Physical and sexual harassment, bullying, civil war, poverty, survival, struggle, depression, making it to the next day, swimming in the ocean of aggression while trying to retain some values and integrity, trying not to become one of them...It is more revealing and even shocking once you realize that the struggles these girls and their mothers and grandmothers had to fight more than 20 years ago are not necessarily over either in Georgia or elsewhere. Women still have to put up the 'pretty' masks once in public and smile and pretend to be happy even if they had been beaten up by their spouses a few hours earlier. Women have to act in order to please others - others being spouses, or parents, or friends, or the society as a whole. In short, the movie is highly recommended!

In Bloom is a must see movie about Georgia's recent past. This period has been covered time after time in many movies but none of them compares.

To start with the plot - it's very simple and depicts almost everyone's life in 90s Georgia. Yet it is so well transferred to the screen, I could not tear away. The movie shows every ugliness we have lived through and it was so authentic I could not get rid of a lump in my throat throughout whole film. Small Georgian quirks might be also interesting and funny to a foreign viewer.

Beautifully shot, with every detail taken into consideration. Tbilisi has changed so much in these 20 years and yet the film captured the 90s vibe perfectly.

None of the child actors are professionals but they are doing magnificent job. They are very real and relatable.

Overall it was a brilliant effort, which deserves to be recognized.