Seule, Georgie

The horrific war in Chechnya, a neighbor of Georgia, gives a special poignancy to Otar Iosseliani’s fascinating, four-hour, made-for-television documentary on Georgia which, like his delightful Chasing Butterflies (SFIFF 1993), was produced in France. Iosseliani presents the history of this former Soviet republic through beautifully interwoven images of landscapes, artwork and clips from other Georgian filmmakers such as Nikoloz Shengalaya and Tenghiz Abuladze. He illuminates the part played recently by two politicians, both KGB men but with very different destinies: Zviad Gamsakhurdia, an ultranationalistic demagogue who died in exile; and Eduard Shevardnadze, who is the president of Georgia today. Iosseliani divides his film into three sections, “Prelude,” “Temptation” and “Trial,” which move from early Georgian history through the 1801 Russian takeover and on into 20th-century events—the Russian Revolution, perestroika and the recent civil war. Alone, Georgia gives a spellbinding evocation of this beautiful, hospitable land, whose torment is, according to Iosseliani, “a symptom of what takes place at this moment in our planet, and gives us a chance to measure the magnitude of the modern human tragedy.”