Plot
The three women live in a run-down apartment in one of Tbilisi's oldest neighborhoods. They endure the realities of modern Georgian life, such as frequent power blackouts and a dilapidated infrastructure. Eka remains the matriarch. She retains an often fractious relationship with her daughter, Marina, but is close to her granddaughter, Ada. However, it is her son Otar that she is most attached to.
Otar Gogebashvili, although a doctor, has recently moved to France because of newly independent Georgia's difficult economic situation. In Paris, he works illegally in construction in order to support the three women. Eka eagerly awaits Otar's regular calls and the money he sends. The generational difference is apparent: Eka loves French culture, speaks perfect French but remains a Stalinist, even in 2002, whereas Ada is Westernized, and longs to follow her uncle's path to the West. Marina has a degree but, due to high unemployment, sells heirlooms at the market.
Their life changes drastically when Marina receives a call from Otar's friend, Niko, who had accompanied him to France. Niko bears bad news: Otar has been killed in an accident. Eka is elderly and fragile, and Marina and Ada agree that the shock could kill her. In a similar manner to the German film, Good Bye Lenin! , released in the same year, they decide to conceal Otar's death.
In order to maintain the charade, Ada forges letters from Otar. Eka grows worried about the lack of calls and absence of money in the letters, but the pair substitute excuses and initially succeed in allaying her worries. Other complications are dealt with, and Eka remains unaware of Otar's death.
After a while, Ada grows reluctant to continue, as she feels that lying to her grandmother is taking its toll. While Ada and Marina consider telling Eka the truth, the eccentric Eka decides that she wants to visit Otar. Before they can dissuade her, she sells her inherited rare French books to purchase plane tickets for them all. Unable to discourage her, Ada and Marina accompany her.
In France, Eka searches for her son. She finally locates his old apartment, and is told the truth by his neighbors. Eka breaks down with the shock, but recovers and meets Ada and Marina, who they are due to return to Georgia. Instead of confronting them, Eka offers them a gracious way out by pretending that she now believes Otar could not make a living in France and had decided to move to America. She suggests that he did not tell them in order to avoid admitting his failure of in France.
At the airport, Ada tells Eka and Marina to go ahead while she purchases a magazine. While they women pass through security, Ada remains behind, as it becomes clear that Ada intends to stay in France. The film ends with their tearful goodbye through the windows of the departure gate.
Cold Mountain is a 2003 epic period war drama film written and directed by Anthony Minghella. The film is based on the bestselling 1997 novel of the same name by Charles Frazier. It stars Jude Law, Nicole Kidman, and Renée Zellweger with Eileen Atkins, Brendan Gleeson, Kathy Baker, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Natalie Portman, Jack White, Giovanni Ribisi, Donald Sutherland, and Ray Winstone in supporting roles. The film tells the story of a wounded deserter from the Confederate army close to the end of the American Civil War, who journeys home to reunite with the woman he loves. The film was a co-production of companies in Italy, Romania, and the United States.
Zugdidi is a city in the western Georgian historical province of Samegrelo (Mingrelia). It is situated in the north-west of that province. The city is located 318 kilometres west of Tbilisi, 30 km from the Black Sea coast and 30 km from the Egrisi Range, at an elevation of 100–110 metres above sea level. Zugdidi is the capital of the Samegrelo-Zemo Svaneti region, which combines Samegrelo (Mingrelia) and upper part of Svaneti, and the centre of the Zugdidi Municipality within. Zugdidi is the sixth most populous city in Georgia.
Ada or Ardor: A Family Chronicle is a novel by Vladimir Nabokov published in 1969.
Otar Vasilisdze Taktakishvili was a prominent Georgian composer, teacher, conductor, and musicologist of the Soviet period. Although in the West Taktakishvili is perhaps best known for his 1968 Sonata for Flute and Piano, his works include two symphonies, four piano concertos, two violin concertos, two cello concertos, and operas. He also wrote several symphonic poems and oratorios, as well as adaptations of Georgian folk songs and a multitude of compositions for instruments and voice.
That Yellow Bastard is a six-issue comic book limited series and the sixth in the Sin City series. It was published by Dark Horse Comics in February–July 1996. It follows the usual black and white noir style artistry of previous Sin City novels, with the exception of yellow on Roark Junior late in the story.
The Marquise of O is a 1976 historical drama film written and directed by Éric Rohmer, based on the 1808 novella of the same name by Heinrich von Kleist. Set in 1799, the film tells the story of the Marquise von O, a virtuous widow, who finds herself pregnant and protests her innocence while possibly deserving to be exiled. The film won the Grand Prix Spécial Prize at the 1976 Cannes Film Festival.
Otar Iosseliani was a Georgian film director, known for movies such as Falling Leaves, Pastorale and Favourites of the Moon. Iosseliani received a lifetime achievement honor – the CineMerit Award at the Munich International Film Festival in 2011 for his career accomplishments.
Kudrat (transl. Nature) is a 1981 Indian Hindi-language drama film, written and directed by Chetan Anand. The film stars Rajesh Khanna and Hema Malini, supported by Raaj Kumar, Priya Rajvansh and Vinod Khanna. This is the second movie of the Rajesh Khanna-Hema Malini pair with a reincarnation theme after Mehbooba. Rajesh Khanna received the 1982 All-India Critics Association (AICA) Best Actor Award for Kudrat. The film was a box office hit and it won the Filmfare Award for Best Story.
Lasha Bugadze is a Georgian novelist and playwright. Among his noteworthy plays are Shocked Tatyana, which satirizes war heroism, and Soldier, Love, Bodyguard and ... the President.
Harold is a 2008 American comedy film co-written by Greg Fields and T. Sean Shannon, starring Spencer Breslin in the title role, Cuba Gooding Jr., Nikki Blonsky, Ally Sheedy and Stella Maeve. It is Shannon's first full-length feature film and is partially adapted from his earlier short film, which itself was adapted from one of his Saturday Night Live sketches. It was also released six years after the death of Greg Fields.
How About You is a 2007 Irish film directed by Anthony Byrne. The film is based on a short story sometimes published as "How About You" and sometimes published as "The Hard Core" in This Year It Will Be Different, a 1996 collection of short stories by Maeve Binchy. It tells the story of a young woman named Ellie who is left in charge of the residential home run by her older sister, during Christmas period. Most of the residents have gone with their families during the holidays, but four residents, known as the hardcore, remain. Their behaviour will cause much trouble and will lead to the residence facing closure.
Football is one of the most popular sports in Georgia. It is governed by the Georgian Football Federation (GFF). The GFF organises the men's, women's, and futsal national teams.
It's a Date is a 1940 American musical film directed by William A. Seiter and starring Deanna Durbin, Kay Francis, and Walter Pidgeon. Based on a story by Jane Hall, Frederick Kohner, and Ralph Block, the film is about an aspiring actress who is offered the lead in a major new play, but discovers that her mother, a more experienced actress, was hoping to get the same part. Their lives are complicated further when they both get involved with the same man. Distributed by Universal Pictures, It's a Date was remade in 1950 as Nancy Goes to Rio.
Young Widow is a 1946 drama film directed by Edwin L. Marin and starring Jane Russell and Louis Hayward. It focuses on Joan Kenwood, a young journalist who cannot get over her husband's death in World War II. Kenwood is reminded in large ways and small of her late husband during every one of her assignments. With The Outlaw still being withheld from general release, Young Widow was Jane Russell's debut.
Éponine Thénardier, also referred to as the "Jondrette girl", is a fictional character in the 1862 novel Les Misérables by Victor Hugo.
Le Fils de Gascogne is a French film directed by Pascal Aubier from a scenario by Patrick Modiano and Pascal Aubier, released on 8 May 1996.
Keep Smiling is a 2012 internationally co-produced black comedy-drama written and directed by Rusudan Chkonia. The film was selected as the Georgian entry for the Best Foreign Language Oscar at the 85th Academy Awards, but it did not make the final list. The script was the winner of 2010 GNFC competition of debut full-length feature films and went on to be the most successful release in Georgia of 2012, also enjoying a theatrical run in French cinemas.
A Coffee in Berlin, originally titled Oh Boy, is a 2012 German tragicomedy film written and directed by Jan-Ole Gerster in his feature directorial debut. It stars Tom Schilling, Friederike Kempter, Marc Hosemann, Katharina Schüttler, Justus von Dohnányi, and Michael Gwisdek. It follows an aimless university dropout who attempts to make sense of life as he spends one fateful day wandering the streets of Berlin.
In Bloom is a 2013 Georgian drama film directed by Nana Ekvtimishvili and Simon Groß. It is a bildungsroman focused on the friendship between two teenage girls in 1992 after the country’s independence from the Soviet Union. The artistic style is influenced by post-communist Romanian cinema, particularly by cameraman Oleg Mutu, who also worked on 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (2007).
Olga Guramishvili-Nikoladze was a Georgian biologist and educator. One of the first women to study abroad, she earned a degree in pedagogy and brought advanced teaching methods to Georgia. In 1886, she founded a girls' school, and later a women's gymnasium, in Didi Jikhaishi. At the school, she introduced sericulture to the country and taught her students mechanical knitting and weaving. In her later career, she served as the chair of the school board in Poti from 1894 to 1912. She is remembered for her contributions to education and a street in Tbilisi bears her name.
