Eka & Natia, chronique d'une jeunesse géorgienne

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.

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.

The new Georgina film ''In bloom'' makes Deep impression onlooker, great performance by Lika Babluani and Mariam Bokeria, - a classic story about the transition to adulthood and its attendant difficulties, where the great camera work and acting of spaces were completely wiped out in the story, rather odd mounting solutions, and, most importantly, the only female view of the world.

The film is full of tragic scenes, typical of the Georgina, ''in bloom'' - talking about everyday life, it is often very cruel to us, on the abnormal situation in the families of the strong friendship and mutual assistance, first love ... yes, of love, of course, he said. And again about his childhood.

I think This film is actually In Top 5 made In Georgia During last 20-25 Year.

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.

The story revolves around two 14 year old girls, best friends growing up together in Georgia.

Although it's set in 1992, the time-line and history is merely a canvas for a tale of friendship and difficulties in a flawed culture and society.

We witness the hardships the two girls have to go through and negative or positive emotional bonds they have with friends/schoolmates/family.

There's not much dramatization or cheesy drama going on, since the narrative is documentary-style realism à-la "A Separation". I have to applaud the two young actresses for more-or-less carrying the whole story on their shoulders, with success. Not that the other actors are bad, they all contribute to the authentic atmosphere.

It's also hard to ignore the setting, the homes and streets that reek of post communist decay. This felt personal to me, having grown up in an "fresh" democratic Romania, where the circumstances were similar, even if not the same.

I can totally recommend "In Bloom" to anyone interested in a good story. This is no Hollywood moneymaker, but I also disagree with another reviewer writing that it's hard to understand for non-Georgians. Cinema is universal.