Eldar Shengelaia (b. 1933) was born into filmmaking. The son of silent-era Georgian film star Nato Vachnadze and Director Nikoloz Shengelaia, Eldar studied film in Moscow before returning home to Georgia to work in Tblisi’s Gruziya-film studio; one of the oldest film studios in the world. After a successful career with widespread praise for his work in the 1980s, Shengelaia paused filmmaking to pursue a second career in the Georgian parliament as part of the country’s Independence movement, where he served from 1990 until 2004. This change shines an intriguing light on the loving portrayal of his country and the critical and mocking portrayal of the Soviet occupation seen allegorically throughout his films.
Spectacle is pleased to present four of Shengelaia’s works made before the collapse of the Soviet Union that showcase his native country as he saw it. His multiple efforts to portray Georgia’s truth on film exhibit similarities in their themes: life is tough, it is a constant struggle with the people around us, and the geography in which we inhabit.
BLUE MOUNTAINS, OR UNBELIEVABLE STORY
(ცისფერი მთები ანუ დაუჯერებელი ამბავი)
Dir. Eldar Shengelaia, 1983.
Georgia. 97 min.
In Georgian with English subtitles.
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 4 – 7:30PM
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 11 – 10PM
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 21 – 5PM
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 27 – 10PM
The film concerns a young writer, Soso, attempting to get his novel—the titular Blue Mountains—read by the editorial board of a state-run publishing company. His hopes are dashed in a comedy of errors as his attempts to have the manuscript reviewed are thwarted by everyone else’s preoccupations: chess games, lunches, vacation time, suspicious husbands, constant meetings, the vibrations from neighboring games of motoball (or is it the subway?), and most importantly, a painting of Greenland threatening to fall from its precarious perch.
Season’s pass as Soso’s visits to his publisher grow increasingly hectic and frustrating as he bounces from office to office, and nothing seems to progress or get done. Like the bureaucracy stifling Soso’s progress, where everyone is looking up at someone else to pass the buck to, the employees’ eyes are literally looking upward as the ceiling in the building cracks and plaster rains down upon them. Will they do anything to stop the impending doom? Or will their reliance on the system be their downfall?
The film’s popularized English title uses “unbelievable” to describe the story, whereas “improbable” or “incredible” may be a more apt translation. Considering this is Shengelaia’s last film before entering Georgian Parliament 6 years later, one can infer that his treatment by, and experience with, the bureaucracy of the Soviet film industry spurred this poison pen classic. To the members of this theater’s volunteer collective, this film will either be seen as cathartic, charming, hilarious, and be received with cheers of “preach!”; or be a trigger for the PTSD that comes with collectivism, and be seen as far too real.
THE ECCENTRICS
(შერეკილები)
Dir. Eldar Shengelaia, 1973.
Georgia. 79 min.
In Georgian with English subtitles.
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 4 – 10PM
SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 8 – 7:30PM
MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 16 – 10PM
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 28 – 7:30PM
Shengelaia’s most outright comedic, surrealistic, and fantastical film of the bunch, THE ECCENTRICS tells the story of Ertaoz, a free spirited young man living in the Georgian countryside. After the death of his equally free spirited father, and left without house and home, Ertaoz wanders to the nearby city where he becomes entangled in the goings on of the local adulteress Margalita, her ever-absent train conductor husband, her jail warden boyfriend, and her psychiatrist suitor.
When an encounter with the warden and the temptation of Margalita’s seduction lands him in jail, Ertaoz meets a new paternal (uncle-grandpa?) figure and friend in the eccentric Kristephore, a mathematician and inventor kept in an underground cell. Together they hatch a plan to escape via an unlikely flying machine inspired by Ertoaz’s pet hen. Hilarity ensues. Will their machine take flight? Will they make it out alive? Will Ertaoz win the heart of Margalita in the process?
AN UNUSUAL EXHIBITION
(არაჩვეულებრივი გამოფენა)
Dir. Eldar Shengelaia, 1968.
Georgia. 89 min.
In Georgian with English subtitles.
MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 2 – 7:30PM
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 7 – 5PM
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 13 – 10PM
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 21 – 10PM
AN UNUSUAL EXHIBITION showcases the life and adventures of Aguli, a sculptor who, injured in the second world war, returns home to resume his artistic practice. In his studio’s courtyard stands a large piece of marble gifted to him by his former teacher. The white marble becomes the artist’s white whale. Unable to ever begin carving due to everchanging ideas, commissions for grave monuments, the war effort, a seemingly unending amount of children, and even his own drunken indiscretions. The behemoth blank page plagues the artist, who takes out his inability to spend time on his own work on his wife, who takes on all domestic responsibilities, and his father.
Shengelaia approaches the life of an artist with his usual brand of humor, satire, and sardonicism. Aguli encounters all of the naysayers a creative might deal with in their career. Finicky clients who just need to see the smallest amount of their own direction in the work, regardless of how much actually changes. Never able to create his own artistic expressions, the local graveyard becomes his exhibition where Aguli can look back on his accomplishments and past commissions. The film presents a truth for the aspirational working class creative: life gets in the way. But for Aguli, and the rest of us, perhaps it’s the art that got in the way of life.
THE WHITE CARAVAN
(თეთრი ქარავანი)
Dirs. Eldar Shengelaia, Tamaz Meliava, 1963.
Georgia. 93 min.
In Georgian with English subtitles.
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 7 – 10PM
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 11 – 7:30PM
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 20 – 5PM
MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 23 – 10PM
THE WHITE CARAVAN follows its narrator Gela, who is the eldest son of Martia, a shepherd who leads a group of seven as they guide their flock of sheep across the challenging landscape of Georgia to their winter pasture. The flock is their village’s main economic livelihood, with the entire population relying upon its success. The work is hard and the terrain dangerous.
Gela is unhappy and despondent, feeling trapped in his life with the flock on the road. Lured by the excitement and possibilities of the city he abandons his group, his flock, and the love of his fiancee for ‘greener pastures’. But after a tragic accident brings him back, what regrets await him? Was chasing a dream a mistake? What does it mean to live?
THE WHITE CARAVAN is the 3rd feature film that Shengelaia worked on in a directorial role, sharing responsibilities with Tamaz Meliava. While it is the earliest film we are presenting in this series, in some regards it feels the grandest in scale. Walking a line between a rural slice of life, and an epic western. The film utilizes both the relationship of the father and the son, as well as the countryside and the city, to discuss Georgia’s national identity and the schism between tradition and modernity, old and new. Two sides of the same coin, one looking forward, the other looking back, unable to see one another face to face. Some New York transplants might feel this one in their bones.
Poster by Delaney Weber.