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The Worst Film Ever

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties. It's a feast for the eyes. But what really makes this dramedy work is the acting.

I don't believe I've ever seen a Georgian film before watching In Bloom, but it was a great place to start and I'll certainly be looking more into Georgian cinema. Like many coming of age stories the film focuses on two young teenage girls, but unlike most typical American or European films, the background for this film involves a country that has recently overcome one violent coup and is in the middle of a civil war. Screenwriter and co-director Nana Ekvtimishvili handles these details with lovely subtlety never making them feel heavy handed or overt. The camera- work for the film is also a knock out. The cinematographer, Oleg Mutu, is the same one responsible for the Romanian masterpiece 4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days, and he flawlessly employs the steady hand and long takes he used in that movie to great effect here. There is a beautiful 5 minute scene that is a one shot take of one of the girls dancing and it is the perfect meld of technical camera-work and physical performance. I would be remiss of course not to mention the acting of the two lead girls who are simply fantastic. And while they are both strong actresses, it's Lika Babluani, in a much quieter performance, who is devastating. She has a face made for cinema and she can carry those long takes and fill them up with her presence without feeling laboured or strained.

After the fall of USSR, Georgia finds itself in anarchy, degeneration, decay and depression. All of this is reflected in behavior of its people. The movie paints a bleak landscape at every level: widespread crime, dog-eat-dog atmosphere expressed in bread lines (survival of the fittest); domestic violence - resulted from economic woes + accepted culture of excessive male dominance and drinking; decline in schools (teacher judges and makes fun of students in front of the class, making unpatriotic comments about a student's father fighting in a war with Abghazia). Atmosphere of hopelessness prevails in Georgia except for beautiful, little 14 yo Eka with very sad face. She is the light in this land of darkness, representing Georgian hope and possibly a better future some day. She is not afraid to stand up to societal wrongs, question, support and protect her friends, speak out and shame others for their indifference toward their own society i.e. their country. Eka is the hidden goodness of Georgia, characterized by her mesmerizing dance at the wedding. She is a "uniter, not a divider", able to lift spirits and make her countrymen smile, cry and feel some kind of pride and emotion for their lost and forgotten Georgian-ness.

Grzeli nateli dgeebi is a film from Georgia shown as In Bloom (2013) in the U.S. It was directed by Nana Ekvtimishvili and Simon Groß. Nana Ekvtimishvili is also the writer.The film takes place in the Georgian city of Tbilisi in 1992, shortly after the disintegration of the U.S.S.R. Although life is not easy in Tbilisi--people are always standing in line waiting to buy bread--the movie doesn't depict widespread misery. Young people are attending school, and there's enough food on the table for everyone we meet. (I assume this is an accurate portrayal of the situation at the time, although I have no way of confirming this.)The film is, at its core, a coming-of-age movie about two adolescent girls--Eka (Lika Babluani) and Natia (Mariam Bokeria). They are best friends and manage to protect each other, as much as possible, from male aggression and bullying. Things don't work out very well, but I can't say more without spoiling the movie. I can say this much--there's a wedding in the film, and one of the friends gives the bride the gift of an incredible folkloric dance. It's very different--at least for me--from what I expected an Eastern European folk dance to look like, but it's truly beautiful.We saw this movie at the excellent Dryden Theatre in Rochester, NY. However, it will work well on DVD. I noticed that most of the IMDb reviews of In Bloom came from Eastern European viewers. I don't know whether that's because the movie has had limited release in the U.S., or because U.S. viewers just haven't been motivated to review it.The good news is that, as I write this review, its IMDb rating is a very high 8.1. So, those who have seen In Bloom really, really like it. That supports my suggestion to seek it out and view it if at all possible.

Yes, indeed I just registered on IMDb so that I could write a review on this truly amazing movie. The movie is centered around two teenage girls making it through the war in Georgia (the country) from 1990's and their every day struggles at home, school and on the streets. The war is not on the front page though. It is in the background but it does not make the movie any less dramatic. Physical and sexual harassment, bullying, civil war, poverty, survival, struggle, depression, making it to the next day, swimming in the ocean of aggression while trying to retain some values and integrity, trying not to become one of them...It is more revealing and even shocking once you realize that the struggles these girls and their mothers and grandmothers had to fight more than 20 years ago are not necessarily over either in Georgia or elsewhere. Women still have to put up the 'pretty' masks once in public and smile and pretend to be happy even if they had been beaten up by their spouses a few hours earlier. Women have to act in order to please others - others being spouses, or parents, or friends, or the society as a whole. In short, the movie is highly recommended!