Cinema
რობინზონიადა ანუ ჩემი ინგლისელი პაპა
Nana Djordjadze · 1987
Synopsis
An old woman remembers. Shortly before the Red Army enters Georgia, an English telegraphist, Christopher Hughes, is sent into the countryside to maintain the line meant to link London to Delhi. He settles in the village of Sio, meets Anna, the sister of the head of the community, and when the order for repatriation comes, he has to choose between the line and her.
Context
The screenplay is by Irakli Kvirikadze, the cinematography by Levan Paatashvili, and Janri Lolashvili plays the Englishman. The starting point is historical: the Indo-European telegraph line, built by Siemens between 1868 and 1870, crossed the country and operated until 1931. Everything is embedded in the memory of an elderly woman, which gives the film its tone of something reported and allows the liberties it takes with chronology. In French, the title circulates in two forms, that of the distribution and that of the festival.
Who it is for
Seventy-six minutes, in Georgian and Russian, with subtitles. It helps to know that Georgia enjoyed three years of independence between 1918 and 1921, and that the film is set at the very end of them.
Prizes and reception
Caméra d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival in 1987, where the film was shown in Un Certain Regard, and its director's first feature film.