Repentance (1984)
Country: USSR
Technical: col 155m
Director: Tengiz Abuladze
Cast: Avtandil Makharadze, Ia Ninidze
Synopsis:
When a dictator dies, a woman repeatedly has his body exhumed, saying burial is too good for him.
Review:
Modelled on Stalin, but looking more like a cross between Hitler and Mussolini (and thus serving the dual function of discretion and totemic significance), this dictator is a paranoid buffoon, apparently innocent but seeing enemies everywhere and convinced of the need for his actions. The film takes a pragmatic, surreal and tragic look at the effects of these on his country and family. It's a bit long, but certainly unique, and astonishingly daring aesthetically as well as politically, causing it to be banned for a number of years until Gorbachev's glasnost.
Country: USSR
Technical: col 155m
Director: Tengiz Abuladze
Cast: Avtandil Makharadze, Ia Ninidze
Synopsis:
When a dictator dies, a woman repeatedly has his body exhumed, saying burial is too good for him.
Review:
Modelled on Stalin, but looking more like a cross between Hitler and Mussolini (and thus serving the dual function of discretion and totemic significance), this dictator is a paranoid buffoon, apparently innocent but seeing enemies everywhere and convinced of the need for his actions. The film takes a pragmatic, surreal and tragic look at the effects of these on his country and family. It's a bit long, but certainly unique, and astonishingly daring aesthetically as well as politically, causing it to be banned for a number of years until Gorbachev's glasnost.
Country: USSR
Technical: col 155m
Director: Tengiz Abuladze
Cast: Avtandil Makharadze, Ia Ninidze
Synopsis:
When a dictator dies, a woman repeatedly has his body exhumed, saying burial is too good for him.
Review:
Modelled on Stalin, but looking more like a cross between Hitler and Mussolini (and thus serving the dual function of discretion and totemic significance), this dictator is a paranoid buffoon, apparently innocent but seeing enemies everywhere and convinced of the need for his actions. The film takes a pragmatic, surreal and tragic look at the effects of these on his country and family. It's a bit long, but certainly unique, and astonishingly daring aesthetically as well as politically, causing it to be banned for a number of years until Gorbachev's glasnost.