Depuis qu’Otar est parti

After the many films about the adventures of migrants in their new home countries in the 1990s, there is now more interest in those who stayed behind. Alongside Wang Xiaoshuai’s Drifters (see that entry) there is also this widely praised début by Julie Bertucelli. In Tblisi, the capital of Georgia, three women from three generations were left behind since Otar left. Each has to survive in her own way. Grandmother Eka lives for the letters and phone calls from her son who now lives in Paris. Her daughter Marina is bitter about this prominent place that Otar enjoys, while she is left as the only one to care for the lively nonety-year-old. Granddaughter Ada, a promising student, is wrestling with the limited perspectives she has in Georgia. One day, when Eka is not at home, Marina and Ada receive a phone call from Paris. Otar has died in an industrial accident. They decide not to tell Eka the bad news, for fear it would be the death of her. But then Eka conceives a plan to go and see Otar in Paris… The director -daughter of Jean-Louis Bertucelli whose Remparts d’argile was screened at the very first Rotterdam festival -was previously assistant director to Kieslowski and Otar(!) Iosseliani, who acquainted her with Georgia. She tackles this pretty difficult subject in a disarming and precise way. The moving tale does not degenerate into sentimentality, largely thanks to the wonderful actresses.