Otar Iosseliani: Early Shorts, 1958–64

Otar Iosseliani: Early Shorts, 1958–64

Otar Iosseliani's first four films, recently restored by Cinémathèque Francaise, are presented together in this program. “Akvareli is about a poor family whose wearisome everyday existence is unexpectedly changed by art. Sapovnela is about an older man who has to make way for a road through the blossoming garden that he loves. This was Iosseliani's first and only color film until 1983. In Aprili a young happy couple moves from a poor district to a new housing estate. Their relationship gets progressively worse as their comfort and possessions increase. This is the film closest to the work of Jacques Tati thanks to the comic effect of the modified sounds, the reduced dialogue and the skepticism regarding progress achieved through modernization. Tudzhi is about the daily routine at an ironworks. But the central subject of this uncommented documentary is not fascination for the machines or the achievements of the Soviet steel industry but the people who work at the plant” (Arsenal Cinema, Berlin, March 2012).

Akvareli. 1958. USSR. 10 min.

Sapovnela (Song about a Flower). 1959. USSR. 18 min.

Aprili (April). 1962. USSR. 46 min.

Tudzhi (Cast Iron). 1964. USSR. 20 min.

In Georgian; English subtitles. Program 94 min.