Cinema
მოცურავე
Irakli Kvirikadze · 1981
Synopsis
Batumi, on the Black Sea. Anton Dumbadze tells the story of his family, three generations of swimmers. The grandfather, Durmishkhan, learns in 1916 that an Englishman has swum the Channel and swears to do twice as much: he throws himself into the water and comes out three days later at Poti, without anyone believing him. The father takes up the crossing at the end of the forties, in a country where envy and denunciation get involved. The grandson is in turn preparing to enter the water.
Context
The film was completed in 1981 and was released only in 1984, in a version cut by the censors; the director's cut was not restored until 1989. What caused offence remains famous: children drop a porcelain figurine of Stalin into an aquarium, and the next day their father has disappeared and his photograph has been cut out of the family album. The director also wrote the screenplay, and Baadour Tsouladze, himself a filmmaker, plays the grandson and tells the story.
Who it is for
No French release, but available with subtitles. It is worth knowing that the version long seen was not the one that had been shot, and that the difference concerns what the film says about the purges.
Prizes and reception
Grand prize at the San Remo international auteur film festival in 1987, and the title by which its author is known.
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