Feminism vs tradition and the patriarchy in Mariam Khatchvani's Georgia-set drama, DEDE

Primitive, filmed in a beautiful location, and said to be based on a real-life situation taking place in 1988, as the Georgian Civil War began, DEDE, the 2017 film directed and co-written by Mariam Khatchvani, takes a number of unexpected turns, even as it purloins themes from Romeo & Juliet, the Sabine Women, and maybe every backwoods-set, honor-above-all-else, Eastern European/Eurasian movie ever made.

The film also proves an oddball mix of the modern (that stylish red dress our heroine tries so hard to get her hubby to compliment) along with the strictured and provincial (traditions that are awfully difficult to understand, let alone countenance: an engagement -- no, not ring but bullet. How sweet!).

The theme of budding feminism going up against traditional patriarchy, Georgian-style, is given quite a workout here. Ms Khatchvani, pictured at right, is deliberately, I suspect, filming in the same primitive style of the setting of her movie, as exposition couples with somewhat stilted performances and dialog, so that we always get the sense that, despite the relatively modern year, we're still in some kind of far-off, nearly ancient locale. What keeps us going during this somewhat languorous film are two things.

First, the interesting performers: George Babluani, shown above, as our heroine's first great love, a sexy, slow-burn guy who's great at staring; Natia Vibliani as Dina (below, with child), the put-upon girl at the center of all the male wrangling; and literally all the supporting performers who seem equally adept and real.

Secondly, the visuals here, thanks to the gorgeous locations, can often be breathtaking: There's one scene in which villagers carry lanterns/torches in the night on one side of the screen, even as the salmon-colored sunset hits the peaks of the mountains on the other. One question, however: Is Dede, the movie's title, somehow short for the name Dina, our main character? If not, what is its connectuon to this film?

From Corinth Films, in the Georgian language and running 97 minutes, Dede hits home video on DVD and digital streaming (via Amazon and iTunes) this coming Tuesday, June 30 -- for purchase and/or rental.

Another BFLF nominee better than the winner: Estonia's spare but rewarding TANGERINES

In the exalted tradition of fine anti-war films, TANGERINES, from filmmaker Zaza Urushadze, proves a major winner. Short (only 87 minutes), crisp, economical yet enormously affecting, the movie details what takes place in and around a tangerine grove in the Apkhazeti region of Georgia, back in 1990, as hostilities break out. Soldiers and the few remaining townspeople come and go, while the movie concentrates on a quartet of characters: the grandfather who owns a small factory in which the titular tangerines are crated, his friend who owns the grove in which they grow, and two soldiers -- from opposing sides.

How these four men come together and dance around each other in an increasingly fraught situation turns into a beautifully acted film of distinction and honor -- both directed and written by Mr. Urushadze, shown at left. It is by turns funny, thoughtful, surprising and extremely moving.

Of the two soldiers, one is a mercenary, which would normally change things from the usual my side/your side conflict -- except that in this case the mercenary has a personal stake in things, as his comrade-in-arms has just been killed by the "other side."

Via a series of plot machinations that seem easily believable given the circumstances, the four men end up together in grandpa's house, where a promise of non-violence is wrested from the mercenary by his host.

The dialog is aces, as are the performances of the four actors involved, the character of each emerging via incidents as much as from words. The musical score is simple and lovely, the direction fluid and smart, and the cinematography good enough to make you want to visit this place (in peacetime, at least).

Amidst the bucolic scenery of the area in which the film was shot, we see the stupid waste of war -- to both the landscape and its occupants. Nothing is baldly stated; it is simply shown. How these men bond, and how, even then, war insists on having its destruction is shown us with immeasurable force and sadness.

With all our best intentions, life -- and chance -- keep intruding, and Urushadze brings this home with poignancy, strength and affection for all. Burying the dead has rarely arrived with such an encompassing sense of waste. Tangerines, like Timbuktu, was one of the five nominees for this past year's Best Foreign Language Film, and both are better than the beautifully photographed but baldly predetermined movie, Ida, that actually won the prize.

From Samuel Goldwyn Films, Tangerines opens this Friday, April 17, in New York City at the Lincoln Plaza Cinema, and on the Friday, April 24 in Los Angeles at Laemmle's Royal, Playhouse 7 and Town Center 5.

Tom Walters' doc, BOTSO, about a 92-year-old Georgian musician/sculptor/teacher, is one of the year's most life-affirming and worthwhile

As documentaries go, you'll be hard put to find a more upbeat, life-affirming, out-and-out fascinating example than BOTSO, the nickname of the film's amazing protagonist: a musician/ sculptor/teacher born in Georgia (the far-off Eastern European state, rather than ours here in the south), who's now 92 years old and still going strong. "Botso," he explains early on, means "young steer" in the Georgian language. "In fights," he explains further, "I used my head first."  There's not a lot of fighting in this movie, however. It would appear that Botso has clearly outgrown that.

What the film offer in spades is the story of a life so full of incident and surprise, horror and hope, travel (sometimes enforced) and fulfillment that there is enough here to take in several lives. Our own small and rather paltry examples of living may pale by comparison, yet seeing this documentary should certainly turn us toward living to the fullest. As directed by Tom Walters, shown at right, and written by Hilary Grant, this life of Wachtang "Botso" Korisheli -- one hell of a fine fellow with the remarkable ability to make the best of just about anything -- unfolds before us as the kind of adventure seldom seen nor heard in our experience.

Who else, as a child, would have received a warm pat on his shoulder from Joseph Stalin, who had come to see Botso's father (pictured in the portrait above right), a famous Georgian actor, in a play. "You must be very proud of him," Stalin tells the boy, and then, within two years has the father executed, while the home of the boy and his mother is taken over by the state and stocked with political prisoners on their way to detention camps.

Botso's gift for music (he could hear a song once as played in a movie, then rush home and play it again, harmonies intact) served him well as a prisoner-of-war of the Germans in WWII. So taken with him were they that they made sure he had papers that would place him with the Americans at the end of the war, rather than with the Russians, who would have undoubtedly executed him.

Once the man arrives in America, he crosses  the paths of everyone from musical royalty to film star Janet Gaynor and ends up finding his gift for sculpture, too, then teaching it and music in Los Angeles and finally at Santa Barbara's Morro Bay. His students now number in the hundreds, some of them famous, most all of them indebted and grateful.

Walters and Grant weave Botso's tale back and forth from present to past, using some splendid archival footage and only a very few "reconstructions." They understand what a guy they have in tow and so let him tell his tale in his own way and time. We follow along as Botso returns to Georgia for a kind of reunion, where we see what a gorgeous country is his homeland (below).

Made, it appears, over at least a five-year period, the movie allows us to see some of the man's students as both younger and then older children. We meet his much younger wife and his own slew of adopted children (having contracted mumps as a child, he was made sterile), and see the home he's created entirely by hand (nothing bought from even a hardware store, we're assured).

Some of the loveliest moments come from simply hearing Botso's philosophy: "Nature has a harmony that we should learn. You fight nature, you fight yourself." A remarkable human being and talent, Botso has now made a remarkable documentary that it's a privilege to see and hear.

The movie, running a fast and mostly effortless 82 minutes, opens this Friday, October 10, in New York City at the Quad Cinema, and on October 24 in Los Angeles at Laemmle's Music Hall 3.

Personal appearance: Director Tom Walters will host Q&A's 

following the 7:30pm show on Friday 10/10 and following the 5:20pm 

and 7:30pm screenings on Saturday 10/11 and Sunday 10/12. 

He will be joined by writer Hilary Grant and editor Randi Barros 

for the 7:30 shows.