Georgian film

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The Georgian State Institute for Theater and Film in Tbilisi, founded in 1972

Georgia's film history began just before the First World War . After the country was incorporated into the Soviet Union , a well-organized state film industry emerged as early as the 1920s,producingseven to eight feature films and a number of documentaries and cartoons every twelve months in the 1980s. Georgian films attracted attention early on due to their originality and criticism, which is why they were repeatedlysuppressedby the censors . After the independence of the state, film production in Georgia went downhill.

Beginnings

Georgia's first cinema opened in Tbilisi on November 16, 1896 . The first Georgian film was made in 1912, directed by Wasil Amaschukeli and Alexander Dighmelow . It was a documentary film for the 72nd birthday of the writer Akaki Tsereteli and showed his journey through western Georgia. In 1916, Alexander Zuzunawa made the first Georgian feature film : Christine , a classic literary film adaptation . During the First World War, Tbilisi was the second city in the Russian Empire , after Saint Petersburg , whose larger cinemas presented newsreels .

The silent film era brought out Georgia's first movie stars. Among them: Nato Watschnadze , the Sarah Bernhardt of Georgian films.

First bloom

Georgian film experienced its first heyday in the late 1920s. Konstantin Mikaberidse turned My grandmother (1929), a comedic satire on Soviet bureaucracy . Nikolos Schengelaja produced Eliso (1928), a silent film about the deportation of the Chechens in 1864 and Micheil Kalatosow (born Mikhail Kalatosishvili) produced The Salt of Svaneti (1930) a documentary film about the hard life in the mountains.

Stalinism

In the 1930s and 1940s, the Stalinist terror suppressed all critical and original tendencies. The dictator demanded stereotypical heroes in the service of the state ideology. Josef Stalin's favorite director was Micheil Tschiaureli , who made monumental films for him such as The Oath (1946) and The Fall of Berlin (1950). They were part of the personality cult around Stalin . In the film, he was played by Georgian actor Mikheil Gelowani .

New forms

In the wake of de-Stalinization during the 1950s, Georgia surprised everyone with new critical films. Magdana's donkey from Tengis Abuladze was the first to describe the persistent poverty under socialism. In 1956 the film won an award in Cannes. The film caused an ethical revolution in Georgia . Many directors emulated Abuladze and strived for a new truthfulness. Because the Soviet film censorship remained unchanged, they looked for parables , myths and epics to tell parables about the present. Based on Georgian literature , art and music , they developed a new visual language.

In the studios of Grusia-Film ( Georgian Kartuli Filmi ), masterpieces honored with international awards were created in the 1960s and 1970s. Most of them were playful comedies and evil satires. She ignored the traditional narrative technique, instead showing strong poetic images, a great variety and dramatic exaggerations up to the surreal grotesque. In the 1980s, criticism of social and political conditions came to the fore in a sharp and naturalistic way. The directors were Abuladze , Eldar and Giorgi Schengelaia , Otar Iosseliani , Lana Gogoberidze , Michail Kobachidze , Nana Jordschadze and Dito Tsintsadze .

In Grusja movie was basically in Georgian rotated. The films were later dubbed in Russian for other Soviet republics . As usual in the planned economy, a fixed number of films had to be completed each year. There was a lot for directors to do. They were trained at the State Film Institute (WGIK) in Moscow until the 1970s . Since 1972 there has been a film faculty at the Schota Rustaveli Theater Institute , which later became the Georgian State Institute for Theater and Film in Tbilisi .

censorship

The film censorship repeatedly withdrew unpleasant films from circulation. Even Mikaberidses Meine Grandmother was not allowed to be performed from 1928 to 1967 at the request of the censors. Pirosmani (1969) by Giorgi Schengelaia disappeared in the archive for two years. Otar Iosseliani's films have been suppressed several times. After his film A Summer in the Village was not allowed to be published in the 1980s, he went abroad. Abuladse's repentance , an account of the Stalinist terror, was completed in 1984 , but only came to the cinema in 1986, and in Moscow in 1987 . Often the scripts have already been banned. Film censorship in Georgia only eased in 1984 when the work ban against the state-persecuted director Sergei Parajanov , who lived in Tbilisi, was lifted.

Decline

After Georgia's state independence in 1991, film censorship was abolished. With the decline of the Georgian economy, the film industry also went downhill. Due to difficulties in financing, productions drag on for years. Film workers earned very little.

More and more directors moved abroad. In addition to France (Iosseliani, Kobaschidze), Germany (Jordschadze, Dito Tsintsadze) has established itself as a location for Georgian films abroad. In order to keep at least some of the directors in the country, the National Center for Cinematography was founded in March 2001 , which selects two film projects each year, 75% of which are shot in Georgia with state funding . It is subordinate to the Ministry of Culture. Its general director is Gaga Tschchaidze. The Tbilisi International Film Festival was founded in 2000 with the aim of giving Georgian film a new boost through international contacts.

Important directors

literature

  • Friends of the Deutsche Kinemathek (ed.): Films from Georgia . Berlin [West] 1975.
  • Tata Tvaltschrelidze: The Contemporary Georgian Film. Determination and tendencies. In: Georgica. Vol. 11 (1988), ISSN  0232-4490
  • Mostra internazionale del Nuovo cinema (ed.): Il cinema delle repubbliche transcaucasiche sovietiche: Armenia, Azerbaigian, Georgia. Marsilio, Venezia 1986, ISBN 88-317-4894-7 .
  • Jean Radvanyi (ed.): Le cinéma georgien . Center Georges Pompidou, Paris 1988, ISBN 2-85850-476-8 .
  • Lino Micciché: The Cinema of the Transcaucasian and Central Asian Soviet Republics. In: Anna Lawton (Ed.): The Red Screen. Politics, Society, Art in Soviet Cinema . Routledge, London / New York 1992, ISBN 0-415-07819-9 .
  • Iosif Mikhailovich Manevich: Narodnyi artist SSSR Mikhail Chiaureli . Goskinoizdat, Moskva 1950.
  • Julie A. Christensen: The Films of Eldar Shengelaya: From Subtle Humor to Biting Satire. In: Slavic Review. 1991.
  • Dinara Maglakelidze: National Identities in West German and Georgian Authors' Films. VDM Verlag Dr. Müller, Saarbrücken 2008, ISBN 978-3-8364-9006-1

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