Begurebis gadaprena (1980) User Reviews

good low-budget short movie

[georgegeorgian · 10/10 · 2 November 2006]

This is one of the first movies by Babluani family, which I'm sure will be new discovery for world cinematography from tiny country of Georgia gifting such talents as Kalatozov, Ioseliani, Chkheidze, Danelia, Abuladze. The recent better-known movies made by Babluani are Tzameti (13) and Heritage. Story is very simple and there are mainly only two male characters, which spend 90% of the movie-time in fighting each other (the fight is quite real and those two actors in fact have been the best fighters in their Vere district in Tbilisi). One of them is rough and looks cruel like serial killer, another is stylish Munchausen, telling 1000 lies per minute... the end is rather dramatic showing that behind hard rocks there are soft souls to care about little sparrows. Watch this movie, budget at bottom, emotions touch sky... Oh, yes! one should be very lost in movies, to consider this one as "comedy". I'd rather call it "other" than "comedy"

One of the best short films I've seen

[academia-2 · 10/10 · 15 March 2008]

Unfortunately the previous review is very uninformative and completely misses the essence, as well as the storyline of the film. This short film represents probably the reason Georgian cinema can claim it's place in the pantheon of world cinema. The script is one of the most thought-through, clever, witty, extremely funny and deeply tragic at the same time. Tragic-farce is the staple of Georgian cinema and to be able to think freely in terms of tragedy and supreme comedy at the same time is a pure gift of god and unabated talent. Babluani clearly possesses this gift. Unfortunately, a lot of stuff, that has purely Georgian cultural references maybe lost in translation but poetry can never be translated either...