Cinema
დიდი მწვანე ველი
Merab Kokochashvili · 1967
Synopsis
The shepherd Sossana spends his days with his flock on the great plain; it is his world, and he brings his wife and children down from the village to live there. Then geologists find oil under the pastures, the collective farm demands that the flock be handed over to it, and his wife, who lacks neighbours, wants to go back to the village. Sossana must say what he chooses.
Context
The screenplay is by Merab Kokochashvili, whom the film's credits list together with Giorgi Shengelaia; the cinematography is by Giorgi Gersamia, the music by Nodar Mamisashvili. Dodo Abashidze plays the shepherd, with Lia Kapanadze and Mzia Maglakelidze. The manner comes from Italian neorealism: a rough black and white, bare landscapes, and long shots in which the man is only a point in a landscape that keeps widening. The film was programmed by the Museum of Modern Art in its retrospective of Georgian cinema.
Who it is for
A drama in Georgian, with no French release. It helps to know that under the Soviet regime, keeping a flock of one's own on land the State coveted was not a career choice but a position.
Prizes and reception
Regarded as a neorealist fable on the quintessential Georgian theme, the man who is one with nature, and as one of the titles that the country's critics cite first.