Otar Iosseliani

The Exile and Death of Andrei Tarkovsky

Ebbo Demant

Andrei Tarkovsky, Larisa Tarkovskaya

A documentary about the life of Andrei Tarkovsky in exile in Western Europe including Italy, Sweden, Germany and France until his sad demise to a fatal cancer.

Falling Leaves

Otar Iosseliani

Ramaz Giorgobiani, Gogi Kharabadze

A young idealist takes a job at a local state run winery only to discover and become disillusioned by the corruption of the Soviet State.

There Once Was a Singing Blackbird

Otar Iosseliani

Gela Kandelaki, Gogi Chkheidze

Gia is a carefree young percussionist who works at a theater in Tbilisi, capital of Georgia. He lives in a small apartment with his mother. Gia spends his days flitting from friend to friend, lover to lover, avoiding any responsibility, and never staying still for five minutes. However, he always manages to arrive at the theater just in time to play the drums at the end of the ballet.

And Then There Was Light

Otar Iosseliani

Sigalon Sagna, Saly Badji

Events in an idyllic African village are shown in detail in the period just before logging trucks come in and cut down the forest around the villagers, forcing them to move into the wretched shantytowns that surround major cities throughout the undeveloped world. Despite the familiar premise, this surprisingly unsentimental film by Georgian director Otar Ioselliani has several things going for it, beginning with the cinematography and including the natural and unaffected (non-professional) performances of the villagers.

Pastorale

Otar Iosseliani

Nana Ioseliani, Tamar Gabarashvili

In the mountain village comes a group of young musicians in Tbilisi. Here they are going to relax and rehearse. Sad story about the final rupture occurred, the peasants do not sing beautiful old songs, the musicians play music incomprehensible to them ... Far from the idyllic image of rural life.

April

Otar Iosseliani

Tatyana Chanturia, Gia Chiraqadze

A critique of materialism, the film is about a young couple who live in a rundown empty apartment. Their love is so strong that it makes the water flow and the electricity work, but when they start purchasing furniture and knickknacks, they fight and grow apart.

Farewell, Home Sweet Home

Otar Iosseliani

Nico Tarielashvili, Lily Lavina

Nicholas is the eldest son of a wealthy suburban family, whose businesswoman mother makes deals from a helicopter and has an affair with her business partner. His cheerful, alcoholic father, on the other hand, is reduced to a prisoner in his room with his devoted dog and electric train set. Unbeknownst to his parents, Nicholas works as a window cleaner and dish washer in a Parisian cafe. He is also in love with the daughter of another cafe's owner, who, however, has an abusive boyfriend. One night, Nicholas sneaks a few drunken drifters into his family wine cellar and his father unexpectedly takes a liking to the stranger.

Brigands, Chapter VII

Otar Iosseliani

Amiran Amiranashvili, Davit Gogibedashvili

A witty, despairing French-Russian-Italian-Swiss art movie set in 16th-century Georgia, Stalinist Georgia, contemporary Georgia, and contemporary Paris, featuring the same set of actors in all four settings.

Chasing Butterflies

Otar Iosseliani

Narda Blanchet, Pierette Pompom Bailhache

Châtelaine Marie-Agnès de Bayonnette lives in her family home with her cousin Solange. The lives of the two old ladies are governed by the traditional codes of aristocracy. When Marie-Agnès died, the heirs from Russia had to fight over the estate with a Japanese company that wanted to buy the property.

Seule, Géorgie

Otar Iosseliani

The horrific war in Chechnya, a neighbor of Georgia, gives a special poignancy to Otar Iosseliani’s fascinating, four-hour, made-for-television documentary on Georgia which, like his delightful Chasing Butterflies (SFIFF 1993), was produced in France. Iosseliani presents the history of this former Soviet republic through beautifully interwoven images of landscapes, artwork and clips from other Georgian filmmakers such as Nikoloz Shengalaya and Tenghiz Abuladze. He illuminates the part played recently by two politicians, both KGB men but with very different destinies: Zviad Gamsakhurdia, an ultranationalistic demagogue who died in exile; and Eduard Shevardnadze, who is the president of Georgia today.

Favourites of the Moon

Otar Iosseliani

Katja Rupé, Alix de Montaigu

The story revolves around two objects, a rare set of 18th-century Limoges china, and a 19th century aristocratic portrait. As these items are passed, sold, or stolen from one character to another, a giddy round dance of excess begins to take shape, one which suggests that if history doesn't repeat itself, it certainly rhymes. Together with co-writer Gérard Brach, whose other co-writing credits include Repulsion and Tess, Otar Iosseliani uses a feather-light touch to expose the futility of class and social order, making a bagatelle of the concerns of rich and poor alike.

ძველი ქართული სიმღერა

Otar Iosseliani

Under the premise of documenting for the sake of preservation the various forms of Georgian religious chanting, a distinct kind of sonorous psalmody passed over from generation to generation, what Otar Iosseliani captures in reality is the snapshot of a not-so-distant past that coexists with the world we might know yet transports us to what used to be.

Lundi matin

Otar Iosseliani

Jacques Bidou, Anne Kravz-Tarnavsky

A story told quietly of Vincent a welder at a large and seemingly toxic plant along the Rhône, living in a village with his sons, wife, and mother, saying little to each other.

Акварель

Otar Iosseliani

Sofiko Chiaureli, Gennadi Krashennikov

A man tries to escape from his wife in order to visit an exhibition, where he sees a painting representing his own house.

Tudzhi

Otar Iosseliani

Documentary of the Rustavi Metal Works, in the country of Georgia.

საპოვნელა

Otar Iosseliani

"Sapovnela" means "the flower that nobody can find." We present this film without subtitles (the voiceover was forced on us by the censorship in the counter-revolutionary times, but the film was banned anyway due to its ending). This was my first attempt at combining music and colors. Also, this is a story about the old florist Mikhail Mamulashvili who created wonderful compositions in his small garden. -- Otar Iosseliani