Cinema
არ იდარდო!
Georgiy Daneliya · 1969
Synopsis
At the end of the nineteenth century, in a small town in Georgia, the young Benjamin Glonti returns from Saint Petersburg with a medical degree, immense plans and not a penny. Around him nothing has changed: his sister keeps having children, his brother-in-law copies papers from morning to night, going down to the cellar. He has to find a way to live there.
Context
The film transposes to Georgia the story of “Mon oncle Benjamin” by the Frenchman Claude Tillier. The screenplay is by Rezo Gabriadze and the director, their first collaboration; the music is by Giya Kancheli, the first he wrote for him, and the cinematography by Vadim Yusov. Vakhtang Kikabidze plays the title role alongside Sergo Zakariadze, Sofiko Chiaureli and Veriko Anjaparidze, who is the director's aunt. It is his first colour film, shot partly on the narrow-gauge railway from Borjomi to Bakuriani.
Who it is for
In Russian and Georgian, subtitled. It helps to know that the Georgia of this film is the Georgia of banquets and toasts, and that the rhythm of the film is that of a table.
Prizes and reception
Included in the list of the hundred best Russian and Soviet films drawn up by Empire, and one of the titles by which Russian-speaking audiences know Georgian cinema.