Cinema
Father of a Soldier
ჯარისკაცის მამა
Rezo Chkheidze · 1964
Synopsis
Summer 1942. Giorgi Makharashvili, an old winegrower from a Georgian village, learns that his son, a tank crewman, has been wounded and taken to hospital, and sets out to join him. When he arrives, the son has recovered and gone back to the front. The old man then obtains permission to stay in the army, has himself enlisted in an infantry unit, and advances westward with it, searching for his child from one trench to the next.
Context
The screenplay is by Souliko Jghenti, the cinematography by Lev Soukhov and Artchil Pilipachvili, the music by Soulkhan Tsintsadzé, and the production by the Grouzia-film studio. Sergo Zakariadzé plays the father: he had already played the role in the theatre, and he became for the public the face of the film. Its director said he considered the best criticism he ever received to be a letter from Sebastopol, which told him that a young man had gone to the police to confess to a theft, saying that he had just seen this film and now wanted to live honestly.
Who it is for
A long film, in subtitled Georgian. Know that everything rests on a single character and a single performer, and that the camera never moves away from him.
Prizes and reception
Best Actor award for Sergo Zakariadze at the Moscow festival in 1965, Lenin Prize in 1966, and Capitoline Jupiter in Rome in 1967.