SINCE OTAR LEFT
France, 2003, 102 minutes, Colour.
Esther Gorintin, Nina Khomassouridze, Dinara Droukarova.
Directed by Julie Bertuccelli.
Writer and first-time director, Julie Bertucelli, must love Georgia and its people. We discover she is French but had worked as an assistant to Kieslowski, Bertollucci and to Iosselliani with whom she spent six months filming in Tiblisi. She got to know it well.
The setting is the early 1990s. Independence is new and the bureaucracies are not used to it at all. Three generations of women share a house, especially since Otar (the son who had started out as a medical student but who is in Paris illegally seeking work on building sites) left for France. We see Otar only in photographs and hear his voice on the phone.
The film is the portrait of the three women, each of whom is excellent in her own way. The focal performance is that of Esther Gorontin as the grandmother, a strong and determined woman if ever there was one, often contemptuous of her widowed daughter, relying on her seemingly mousey granddaughter. The performance does not seem like acting but is totally real and credible. She was 90 when she made the film!
Nina Khomassouridze is the extraverted daughter, in perpetual exasperation with her mother. Dinara Droukarova is the granddaughter. As a portrait of a family, it is quite absorbing. However, the two younger women are faced with a dilemma of whether to give news of Otar to the old lady. The mother opts to conceal the truth and her daughter has to go along with it. The consequences are completely unexpected, leading to a visit to Paris to find Otar.
Audiences will find the visit to these three women, the opening up of the world of Georgia which has lived through Stalinism (he was from Georgia) and the communist era and has learned to live with lies and deception, fascinating and entertaining.
Winner of the first SIGNIS award at the Hong Kong International Film Festival, 2004.
1. A picture of eastern Europe and the beginning of the 21st century? Georgia? The history of Georgia under the communist regimes, Stalin? The independence of the 90s? Looking towards the West, especially France?
2. The picture of Tblisi, the streets, homes, public buildings? The Georgian countryside? The musical score and a variety of moods?
3. The issues of truth and lies, the culture of communism and conformism on the part of the people, independence and people still being accustomed to socialist rule and procedures? The fear of telling the truth, the emotional fear, psychological fear? Living with lies and constructing them as a way of surviving?
4. The title, Otar and his place in the family, his studies, going to Paris, his communications, visa difficulties, letters and phone calls, sending money? Working on the construction site, his friendship with Niko, his accidental death? The information given to the family on the phone, the letter from the Consulate with its detail, Niko and his visit and his bringing the suitcase? Marina and Ada and their option to lie? Ada writing the letters, keeping up the pretence, the neighbour and Tenguiz and their collaborating?
5. Eka and her decision to visit Otar, selling the books, buying the tickets, getting the visas, the flight? The hotel in Paris, Ada in the rain? Marina and Ada finding Otar's grave? Eka going out by herself, the search for the address, asking at the various apartments, her being told the truth, her sitting and grieving? Her options, the decision to create a fantasy that Otar had gone to America and would be communicating with them? Everybody constructing alternate worlds?
6. The portrait of the three women, local, universal? Truth? Strengths and weaknesses?
7. The household, Eka and her husband, his death, love for France, buying so many books, his death? Otar and his place in the family, going to Moscow to study medicine? Marina and her being thought less of, her husband dying in the war in Afghanistan? Ada, her grandmother's favourite, her study, skill with languages, her keeping the peace between her mother and her grandmother? Her boyfriend, his wanting to go to Switzerland, calling him a deserter (and her actually deserting)? The sexual relationship? In the household, dependence, dominance? Who was in the right?
8. Eka and the actress being ninety at the making of the film? The opening, choosing the cake, glaring at Marina taking a piece? In the home, her room, her being spoilt by the women, her feet being done? Her dependence on Ada? Her clashes with Marina? The letter from Otar, keeping the money? Speaking French, devotion to France? Her cutting sayings? Her going on holiday, the departure, ignoring of Marina? Otar's room and wanting it kept? Her going out by herself, going to the carnival, smoking, the ferris wheel, going to the library? Her decision to go to Paris, sell the books? On the flight, at the hotel, her going to enquire about Otar? Her discovering the truth? Her sitting quietly and grieving? Her decision to have an alternate story? Her going back home? Living her particular lie?
9. Marina as her daughter, competition with Otar for her affection, with Ada, washing her mother's hair and discussing the treatment of mother and daughter? Work, the market, her relationship with Tenguiz? The blackouts at the home, her cooking, the phone calls from Otar? Her receiving the information, her decision not to tell her mother the truth? The lie, Ada's writing the letters? It taking up the money? Going on the holiday, with Ada? The shock at discovering what her mother had done? Going to Paris, to the cemetery? Ada not coming back with her? The future with her mother?
10. Ada, her age, experience, the good relationship with her grandmother, her making the peace, her love for her mother? Study, the relationship with the boy? At home, her grandmother relying on her? The translation job and her skills, not being paid well, stealing the pottery? Her going along with her mother's deception, writing Otar's letters? Niko's visit and her coping? The sexual relationship with her boyfriend, his going to Switzerland, his coming back so quickly? Her going on holiday with her mother, the trip to Paris, at the cemetery? Her decision to stay? Her farewell?
11. Tenguiz, relationship with Marina, their work at the market, on holidays, his supporting the women in the deception about Otar?
12. The boy, his ambitions to go to Switzerland, his friend, only getting as far as the border?
13. Life in Georgia after independence, the post office and their surliness, the officials? The transition from communism? Individuals and families within this context?
