Directed by Eldar Shengelaia • 1973 • USSR/Georgia

Shengelaia’s most surreal feature, the suitably-titled Eccentrics spins the tall tale of Ertaoz (Demno Jgenti), an orphan who goes to jail for the sake of his lover. There he encounters renegade prisoner and latter-day Da Vinci, Qristopore (Vasili Chkhaidze), who ropes our hapless protagonist into his latest hare-brained scheme: a daring prison break on board a DIY helicopter… A cult hit in Georgia thanks to its often bewildering comic sensibilities, this is a brisk, disconcerting trip into the strange underbelly of Soviet society.

ECCENTRICS • შერეკილები
Directed by Eldar Shengelaia
Written by Revaz Gabriadze
Cinematography by Geno Chiradze
Music by Giya Kancheli
Starring: ​​Vasili Chkhaidze, Demno Jgenti, Ariadna Shengelaia

In Georgian with English subtitles