Tribute to Eldar Shengelaia

Eldar Shengelaia was born into a filmmaking family in Tbilisi in 1933 (his father Nikolos and his brother Giorgi were also directors, while his mother Nato Vachnadze was an actress) and is active as a director to this day. While his two first films were made at Mosfilmstudios after he studied at the Moscow film school VGIK, he soon returned to Georgia. His interest was fully dedicated to Georgian culture, traditional life, folklore and the popular arts, although he also never lost sight of the real everyday life of the present. In his subtly subversive satires about the conformity of the Soviet world, his characters defy unreasonable social conditions with obstinacy and cunning, overcoming their often restricted scope for action with excursions into the fantastic. (Annette Lingg)

With thanks to the Georgian National Film Center for the collaboration.