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Soviet Union 1987
d: Tengiz Abuladze
Image Entertainment / Ruscico (Region 0 us)
sc: Nana Janelidze, Tengiz Abuladze, Rezo Kveselava
c: Mikhail Agranovič (Orwo Color)
e: Guliko Omadze
pd: Georgi Mikeladze
m: Nana Janelidze
p: Leomer Gugušvili (Qartuli Telepilmi / Sovexportfilm)
w: Avtandil Makharadze, Ja Ninidze, Zejnab Botsvadze, Ketevan Abuladze, Edišer Giorgiobiani, Kakhi Kavsadze, Merab Ninidze, Nino Zaqariadze, Nano Očigava, Boris Tsipurija, Akaki Khidasheli, Levan Antadze, Rezo Esadze, Mzija Makhviladze, Amiran Amiranašvili
pr: 15 Mai 1987
aw: Cannes Film Festival 1987 FIPRESCI Prize; Grand Prize of the Jury; Prize of the Ecumenical Jury; Nominated Golden Palm • Chicago International Film Festival 1987 Silver Hugo Best Actor Avtandil Makharadze • Nika Awards Year 1988 Best Actor Avtandil Makharadze; Best Cinematographer; Best Director; Best Film; Best Production Designer; Best Screenplay
rt: 144:15 (+4%PAL>NTSC= 150) min
dvd-rl: 06 Jän 2004
ar: 1.33:1 (4:3 Academy Ratio)
sd: Georgian Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround • Russian (voice-over) Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround • French Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround
st: English, French, Russian, German, Dutch, Spanish, Italian, Japanese, Swedish, Portuguese, Hebrew, Arabic, Chinese
supp: • Documentary short about Lavrentij Berija (12:16 min)
• Documentary short about Veriko Anžaparidze (9:18 min)
• Filmographies
• Photo Album
A Soviet movie about the traumas of the Stalinist years: the tyranny, the betrayals, the persecutions, and the unexplained disappearances, mounted by Georgian director Abuladze as a weird phantasmagoria of dreams and nightmares, absurdist drama and black comedy. He starts from the ceremonial burial of a town mayor, and the subsequent repeated disinterment of the corpse by the daughter of two of the late tyrant's victims. Flashbacks show his rise to power and growing megalomania. Varlam the mayor was a paranoid secret policeman, a brutal bully-boy. The character is not just an amalgam of Stalin and Beria, but a compendium of every conceivable fascistic trait; and Abuladze tries to underline this desperately literal 'universality' by setting him in a context outside history and culture, where knights in armour stand alongside black-shirted thugs and Boney M vies with Debussy on the soundtrack. The result is neither as minatory nor as moving as it thinks it is, despite some arresting surrealist images and the performance of Makharadze as Varlam.
— TR, Time Out Film Guide
•••••
« Ce film convulsif et fantasmagorique souffre sans doute d’un excès de symbolisme, voire de « surréalisme », mais il comporte des moments d’une grande puissance dramatique et d’une exceptionnelle invention visuelle »
— Marcel Martin, Le Cinéma soviétique de Khroutchev à Gorbatchev – L’Âge d’Homme
•••••
"Le film possède une immense richesse artistique. Il condamne impitoyablement le mal qui détruit non seulement le monde où nous vivons, mais aussi l'individu lui-même, qui transforme l'actualité en absurde cauchemar, qui sème la mort et multiplie les souffrances. Ce film témoigne de l'assainissement moral de la société, d'une transparence courageuse. "
— G. Kapralov, La Pravda, 7 février 1987
