Tengis Abuladze

Tengis Abuladze ( Georgian თენგიზ აბულაძე ; Russian Тенгиз Абуладзе ; born January 31, 1924 in Kutaisi , † March 6, 1994 in Tbilisi ) was a Georgian film director. He was one of the first directors in the Soviet Union to paint a critical picture of real socialism and won many international awards for the visual power of his films.

Life

Abuladze studied theater directing at the Schota Rustaveli Theater Institute in Tbilisi from 1943 to 1946 . In 1952 he graduated from the Moscow Film Institute (WGIK) with a degree in directing. In 1953 he began working as a documentary filmmaker for the Georgian film studio Grusia-Film .

In 1956 he made his first feature film Magdana's Esel (Georgian მაგდანას ლურჯა.) It is about an impoverished widow with three children who nurse a donkey that has been left to die, only to be taken away by its former owner. It won the Palme d'Or for best short film at the Cannes Film Festival in 1956 . The film was seen as an ethical revolution in Georgia and became the model for many other critical films of the political thaw. In 1968 Abuladze made the film The Prayer , which sets humanity against a medieval order of ruthlessness. In the tree of wishes he tells of the destruction of Georgian traditions at the beginning of the 20th century .

Abuladse's film Die Reue (1984) dealt uncompromisingly with Stalinism . The director called him the "first swallow of perestroika " . It is about the late dictator Warlam who is dug up by a woman who wants to shed light on his crimes. In the flashback, Warlam looks like Stalin's State Security Chief Beria, wearing a Hitler mustache and a fascist black shirt. The film was banned in the Soviet Union until 1986. At the instigation of the Georgian Communist Party leader Eduard Shevardnadze , he was finally able to be performed and promoted the changes in the Soviet Union.

In the other socialist countries it remained banned. After the German premiere on ZDF in October 1987, the GDR launched a press campaign against the film. In the same year, Reue won the most important film award in the Soviet Union, the Nika , the Grand Jury Prize at the 1987 Cannes Film Festival and was nominated for an Oscar for best foreign film .

In 1988 Abuladze was awarded the Soviet Lenin Prize. Georgia awarded him the Schota Rustaveli State Prize . From 1990 to 1991 he was a member of the Soviet Parliament.

Works

• Dimitri Arakishvili, Moscow Film Institute 1952
• Our Palace (Georgian Chveni sasakhle ), Grusia-Film 1953
• The Georgian National Ballet (Georgian Qartuli tsekvis sakhelmtsipo ansambli ), Grusia-Film 1954
• Magdana's donkey (Georgian Magdanas lurdsha ), Grusia-Film 1956
• Stepchildren (Georgian Skhvisi shvilebi ), Grusia-Film 1958
• Grandmother Iliko, Ilarion and I (Georgian Me, bebia, Iliko da Ilarioni ), Grusia-Film 1963
• Svanetian Sketches (Georgian Svanur-Tushuri chanakhatebi ), Grusia-Film 1965
• Prayer (Georgian Vedreba ), Grusia-Film 1967
• Necklace for my sweetheart (Georgian Samkauli satrposatvis ), Grusia-Film 1971
• The Open-Air Museum (Georgian Muzeumi gia tsis qvesh ), movie made for TV 1972
• Tree of Wishes (Georgian Natvris khe ), Grusia-Film 1977
• Repentance (Georgian Monanieba ), Grusia-Film 1984
• Khadzhi-Murad, Movie made for TV, 1989

literature

• Goldie Blankoff-Scarr: Tengis Abuladze and the blossoming of Georgian cinematography . In: Georgica . 12: 79-90 (1989)
• Galina Kopaněvová: Tengiz Abuladze . Čs. filmový ústav, Prague 1984
• Igor Aleinikov: Between the Circus and the Zoo . In: Michael Brashinsky, Andrew Horton (Eds.): Russian Critics on the Cinema of Glasnost . Cambridge University Press, New York 1994
• Andrew Horton (Ed.): Russian Critics on the Cinema of Glasnost . Cambridge University Press, New York 1994
• Denise Youngblood: Repentance: Stalinist Terror and the Realism of Surealism . In: Robert A. Rosenstone (Ed.): Revisioning History: Film and the Construction of a New Past . Princeton University Press, Princeton 1995, pp. 139-54
• S. Tugushi: Eščjo odin urok Tengiza Abuladze . In: VM Murian (ed.): Kino: Metodologičeskie issledovanija . VGIK, Moskva 2001, pp. 187-190
• Josephine Woll, Denise J. Youngblood: Repentance: The Film Companion . In: KINOfiles Film Companion 4 . IB Taurus, London 2001
• Valentina Ivanova: Abuladze . In: Zapiski literaturnogo raba . Sovetskii pisatel, Moskva 2003. pp. 205-215

Web links

• Tengis Abuladze in the Internet Movie Database (English)