Blackbird Blackbird Blackberry (2023) User Reviews

Poignant (MAMI MFF 2023 #1)

[nairtejas · 6/10 · 27 October 2023]

Blackbird Blackbird Blackberry is entirely led by its central actor who plays a woman with a particular idea about life. Single for 48 years, she is shielded from the comments, opinions, and expectations of the society, and more importantly, her close circle of girlfriends who are all married, with kids. However, things take a turn when a man enters her life and she lets him. This is a poignant drama about longing and loneliness, set in a remote Georgian village that gets excited at the mention of a shopping mall. Some wry humour, lots of full nudity, and a few metaphors are all what you'll find in this dreamy, meandering film that aims to show what happens when life suddenly happens. I love the lead actor and I hope we get to see more of her.

(Watched at the 2023 MAMI Mumbai Film Festival.)

Berries and Berries

[chenp-54708 · 8/10 · 5 May 2024]

I like stories where characters are living with a specific situation and being able to discover new things around life and Blackbird Blackbird Blackberry does a good character study drama with sweet atmospheres, good camerawork, wry humor, and good performance from Eka Chavleishvili.

Throughout, the camerawork is purposeful with colorful production and settings. The direction from the filmmaker was solid on capturing the tone, narrative structure, and concepts throughout as well. All in all it's a good sweet movie. Georgian cinema isn't something I talk much from but it was nice to see a movie from Georgia.

Blackbird Blackbird Blackberry

[CinemaSerf · 7/10 · 4 May 2024]

"Etero" (Eka Chavleishvili) runs a curious shop in a small town that only seems to sell soap powder and hair dyes! Anyway, one morning her delivery man "Murman" (Temiko Chichinadze) turns up with thirty boxes of a new washing formula and next thing, well it's taken her forty-eight years! He is married and lives a distance away, but he seems keen to take their new found friendship forward, even though he is to take on a lucrative trucking job in Turkey. She? Well she's always been an independent woman who looks after herself on her own terms - and she likes it that way. Or does she? Is it just what she is used to. As she continues to associate with her judgmental, opinionated and gossiping neighbours, she starts to consider just what her life is all about. Then something quite unexpected happens? That requires a trip to the bright lights of Tbilisi where she feels sure the next stage of her life will begin. It has the nature of a fly-on-the-wall documentary to it. We watch this woman whose life has been one of routine (and frequent thunderstorms) come to challenge a mundane existence that, aside from a perilous experience with some blackberry bushes atop a ravine, is the same from one day to the other. We learn a little of her backstory, of a traditional Georgian family dynamic and though the whole thing is inconclusive, the performance from Chavleishvili is nonetheless engaging and probably emblematic of many middle aged people who have sort of drifted into a limbo that is going nowhere fast. It's worth it all just for the look on her face near the end...

Poignant, beautiful and low key

[martinpersson97 · 10/10 · 16 April 2024]

This incredible art house film, by a stellar director, is definitely yet another showcase of provice. As other critics have noted, indeed a very poignant tale.

The actors all do an incredible job, conveying a subtle, low key and beautiful outlook at life, aging and priorities in life. Beautiful script, beautiful writing and pacing.

The cinematography, cutting and editing is incredible, very unique, artistic and very beautifully put together indeed.

Overall, definitely a highlight of the year, yet another showcase of the provice of a stellar director. A highly recommended masterpiece for any lover of film!