Repentance
Klassiki Picks with Alissa Timoshkina: 5 June – 3 July
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2h 31m
Directed by Tengiz Abuladze • 1987 • USSR/Georgia
Tengiz Abuladze’s black comic allegory – the first instance of a Soviet filmmaker directly confronting the legacy of Stalin’s purges – caused a sensation when it first aired on Georgian television. Unfolding over two timelines, the film combines absurdist parable with wrenching drama. When the corpse of the recently deceased mayor of a small town is repeatedly disinterred, its citizens must face up to the horrors of their buried past. Abuladze’s poetic film is a powerful act of cinematic testimony, combining religious symbolism with knowing references to the various ghosts of 20th-century totalitarianism.
REPENTANCE • Მონანიება
Directed by Tengiz Abuladze
Written by Tengiz Abuladze, Nana Janelidze, Rezo Kveselava
Cinematography by Mikhail Agranovich
Music by Nana Dzanelidze
Starring: Avtandil Makharadze, Zeinab Botsvadze, Ia Ninidze
In Georgian with English subtitles
Winner of the FIPRESCI and Jury Prizes at the Cannes Film Festival, 1987
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Alissa Timoshkina introduces her Klas...
Klassiki Picks is our series of curated watchlists personally selected for our subscribers by celebrated filmmakers, writers, and actors. We’re delighted to welcome Alissa Timoshkina to the hot seat for the this latest edition. Alissa is a chef, writer, and historian whose work has put Eastern Eu...
