Etero (Eka Chavleishvili) runs a shop selling hair and beauty products. She’s a confirmed and notable spinster, comfortable with her solitude, though she’s open negotiate a change to that state if the right person would come along. Her default scowl often communicates more than her words. Just three people freely offer her support and information about life in the outside world: a lesbian couple in a nearby town where she shops for supplies, and a friend’s teenage daughter, Elene. To everyone else, Etero is the uncomfortable butt of their jokes, and condescending women in the village feel free to be rude to her face.
A near-death experience and the arrival of the wholesale delivery man Murman (Temiko Chichinadze) interrupt her solace. Passion and potentially even romance are injected into her life. Though having cared for two other men in the past – family members both now deceased – she’s wary of being taken for granted. And his wedding band is only the first red flag about his emotional and physical availability.
In any year, I can count the number of film screenings that revolve around the life of a middle-aged woman on the fingers of one hand. While the stolid nature of the lead actor contributes to the 112-minute run time, Blackbird Blackbird Blackberry keeps delivering a brilliant series of unanticipated scenes which celebrate Etero’s self-reliance and ability to stand on her own two feet.
In her own way, Etero may end up being the most emancipated and liberated women in the village. If the others truly knew her, they might be jealous. Though there’s a surprise just around the corner that might reset everyone’s expectations.
Chavleishvili portrays Etero as a middle-aged woman who is body-positive, never shy, even when intimacy suddenly beckons. Naveriani ensures that those scenes are mesmerising yet never sordid. Introducing the screening, Belfast Film Festival’s international programmer Jessica King reminded the QFT audience that the blackberry is the last berry in the forest to ripen. Blackbird Blackbird Blackberry is a sensitive and sweet story, one that questions the assumptions society makes, and critiques the attitudes that insist everyone follows the same path and the same schedule. Hurray for individualism. Hurray for Etero and Georgian cinema.
Check out my other recommendations at Belfast Film Festival which continues until Saturday 11 November.
Enjoyed this review? Why not click on the Buy Me a Tea button!
No comments:
Post a Comment