dromasca

'Nandauri' is Eti Tsicko's feature film debut. And what a debut! The Israeli director - who is also the author of the screenplay - approaches in this film a combination of complex themes such as the encounter between cultures and mentalities, the conflict between modernity and tradition, emigration and the identity crises of those who experience it, forced marriages and family relationships in a world dominated - sometimes by force - by men. She does it with skill and sensitivity, avoiding clichés, strident rhetoric and messages served on a platter. The film asks a series of questions, not all of which find answers and some problems remain suspended, but viewers who choose to see this film will leave the theater with many topics worth reflecting on and with two characters who will accompany them in their thoughts for a while. The title is one of those words that is difficult to translate into other languages, a kind of equivalent of the Romanian word 'dor', meaning in Georgian 'the heart longs to return'. Where to?

Marina, the film's heroine, is a lawyer who returns to Georgia (the former Soviet republic) where she was born with the mission of obtaining the documents through which her Israeli client can reunite with her 12-year-old son whom she left behind when she fled her parents' home and a toxic and forced marriage. Returning to the country she left as a child is not easy. She no longer perfectly masters the language ('you speak strangely' someone tells her), the cultural differences have deepened, her tendency to master situations as a woman is contrary to local mentalities, and the legal procedure she initiates meets with resistance from the family and especially from Dato, her client's brother, who had until then raised the child abandoned by his mother. The journey through the country with landscapes of hallucinatory beauty and with people living the transition between tradition and modernity but also the crises generated by the fall of communism and the installation of a cruel form of capitalism, with emigration and new economic and moral rules, will be not only a geographical journey nor just a return to the past but also a journey of self-knowledge.

Many of those who saw 'Nandauri' made the comparison - inevitable by the way - with 'Late Marriage', the 2001 film by the director (also of Georgian origin) Dover Koshashvili. There too the dominating themes were the oppressive-patriarchal atmosphere and marriages arranged by the family and sometimes imposed by force, coming into conflict with modern mentalities and with the feelings of young people. As in 'Late Marriage' we have in 'Nandauri' a long and hot scene, excellently filmed and acted, which overturns the meaning of the plot and the relationships between the characters. I would add to the comparisons another Israeli film that dealt with the problems of the encounter between cultures, of identity and the relations between migrants and their countries of origin: it is the 2010 film by Eran Riklis - 'The Human Resources Manager' inspired by a novel by A. B. Yehoshua, the last film in which Rozina Cambos appeared. Riklis' film was mostly filmed in Romania, Eti Tsicko's in Georgia. Here, the cinematography signed by Shai Goldman is noteworthy, inspiringly combining the grandeur of nature with the simplicity of the human landscape, incorporating elements of local color with effective symbolism - see the slightly garish coat worn by the main heroine, highlighting the unsuccessful attempt to adapt to the world around her. In my opinion, Neta Riskin has achieved here one of the best roles of her cinematic career so far, for which she even undertook learning Georgian for a year. Her partner is the impressive Georgian actor Roland Okropiridze. The other actors are not credited and I assume that many of them are non-professional actors. In any case, the feeling of authenticity is strong, we can feel and experience the atmosphere, from the harsh climate, passing through the locals' distrust of foreigners and the fear bordering on horror but addressed with bravado by the visitor, to the warmth of the relationships established when the ice is broken. There is a lot of caution and respect in the depiction of this meeting between cultures, and I think the result is better than in many other films dealing with similar themes, especially because stereotypes are avoided. Even if some themes remain without conclusions or at least would have deserved more in-depth exploration (the fate of the boy, the attitude of the mother who remotely triggered the entire conflict), I think that 'Nandauri' manages to describe a world in transition and the way it faces the good and bad sides of modernity, as well as the price paid for this meeting. I am curious how the film will be received in Georgia and at international festivals. It is certainly worth watching and following the debates that it will suscitate. Eti Tsicko should just continue on the same path.

'On the Occasion of Remembering the Turning Gate' (the original Korean title is 'Saenghwalui balgyeon'), made in 2002 and released on screens in 2004, is the fourth film by South Korean director Hong Sang-soo and probably the first in which he demonstrated artistic maturity and exposed to viewers many of the characteristics of his talent, which would bring him success in award-winning and acclaimed films in the decades that followed. The title referred to an unhappy love story between an emperor's daughter and an ordinary mortal, and the cinematic narrative chooses two stories that exemplify precisely such unlucky love stories. The difference lies in the source of the failure of these relationships. These are not to be found in irreconcilable class differences, but mainly in the lack of will or power to communicate between the hero of the film, a theater and film actor in a professional and personal crisis caused by the failure of his latest film, and the two young women he meets in two different erotic adventures, which have surprising and mysterious similarities between them. Do those who are lonely owe their situations to fate or is it perhaps their own fault and their inability to express their feelings at the right time?

How significant is the fact that the hero of the film is an actor? When he enters his love relationships, does he play a role? When is he the experienced playboy and when is he the sincere lover? The inability to express his feelings is reminiscent of the lack of communication between the characters in the films that Michelangelo Antonioni made in Italy four decades earlier. Words do not help the heroes, the exchanges of replica seem to be more a way of ensuring that the relationships continue, feelings are expressed through gestures, through the way the heroes eat and drink (they drink a lot!) or make love. In the end, however, silences dominate and the danger of loneliness is constantly looming.

One of Hong Sang-soo's later films tells twice the story of a meeting between a man and a woman. The viewer is left to discover how the differences and changed nuances that a different facial expression or spoken word, or a different angle of filming lead to a change in the perception of the same event. Something similar happens in this film, in which the hero's two love relationships seem to start from very similar premises to end very differently. The viewers are invited to witness two love stories, or perhaps it is a single story that just happens in a different place and time. The camera is skillfully placed and directed, the actors are well chosen and are professionally directed by a film director who was just starting out, but was already a master in filmmaking. To be seen and enjoyed.