Since Otar Left (2003)

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Highly Overrated But Still Good

Fresh and Exciting

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

"Since Otar Left" is about three generations of Georgian women (an old women, her daughter, and her granddaughter) who live in austerity in an old flat in Georgia. The grandmother looks forward to letters she receives from her only other offspring, a son Otar, who is working in Paris. When Otar dies unexpectedly, the two younger women intercept the bad news and hatch a plan to keep the letters and the happiness they bring coming to the old woman. As the film develops this meager plot and we watch the women trudge through their mundane daily activities we are unaware of a more significant plot developing before our eyes with both plots culminating suddenly at the film's end.Those who prefer a steady diet of the usual commercial Hollywood film products will likely find "Since Otar Left" a monotonous film of little consequence. However, those who enjoy the people stories of French cinema with their natural and finely nuanced studies of human nature, this sensitive, plaintive, and charming gem is a fly-on-the-wall look at a slice-of-Georgian-life which should not be missed. (A-)

A French-Belgian co-production, spoken in a blend of Georgian, Russian and French, first-time director Julie Bertucelli's Since Otar Left centers on the lives of three generations of women. An elderly grandmother Eka (Esther Gorintin) lives with her daughter Marina (Nino Khomassouridze) and young granddaughter Ada (Dinara Droukarova) in Tblisi in the former Soviet Republic of Georgia. Conditions are hard in Tblisi and Marina has been forced to sell wares at the local market in spite of her engineering degree. Nothing seems to work properly, the power goes out, phone calls are cut off and Eka longs to recapture life as it was under Joseph Stalin.Things have not been the same since Eka's beloved son Otar, a doctor, left for France two years ago. Unable to practice medicine legally, Otar (whom we never meet) has had to accept construction work and Eka's life revolves around his periodic letters and phone calls. Thirty minutes into the film we learn some distressing news about Otar. Marina and Ada, fearful of how it will affect Eka, withhold the information, pursuing an elaborate scheme of deception. They forge his letters and make up excuses why he has not called. Everything works well for a time but things begin to unravel when Eka, having not spoken to Otar in seven months, sells her esteemed collection of French literature to raise money to travel to Paris in an attempt to find Otar. When Marina and Ada decide to go with Eka, an adventure awaits them as the film veers off in an unexpected direction.The performances of the three women are remarkable and Ms. Gorintin does an admirable job of conveying a stoop-shouldered, sentimental old woman, yet her character is a doddering stereotype, too typical of the way old people are portrayed in films. A film about generational conflicts and the problems of the elderly is welcome but Ms. Bertucelli does not explore these issues in any depth and the plot implausibilities are numerous. Marina forges Otar's letters but Eka never checks the postmark. Otar fails to telephone for seven months, yet Eka only has a "hint" that something might be wrong. The family allows Eka to sell her prized possession without trying to ascertain the purpose of her actions, and there are many others. Since Otar Left won the Critics Week Grand Prize at the 2003 Cannes Film Festival and the Cesar Award for Best First Work but I found it contrived and unconvincing, content with ersatz warmth, "colorful" ethnic characters, and overly literate dialogue that does not ring true.

"Since Otar Left (Depuis qu'Otar est parti...)" deals heartbreakingly humanistically with many of the same political and family issues that "Goodbye, Lenin!" treats for humor -- today's ironic adjustment to capitalism in former U.S.S.R. satellites, the cross-generational responsibilities of those who lived under the Big Lies, and filial love. With dialogue in French, Georgian, and Russian, debut writer/directer Julie Bertucelli focuses on a Francophile household of an earthy grandmother, mother, and daughter in Georgia and their relationships to the dead, absent, and present men who are satellites in their lives. While there's reminders of O. Henry's "The Gift of the Magi" and "The Last Leaf," not a single character is a cliche or dumb and none of their decisions is predictable. The audience literally holds its breath to see each woman's reactions as their emotional predicaments get more complicated in a weave of their own making. The actresses, from 21 to 90 years old, brilliantly convey the complex emotional see saw. A simply beautiful movie that's one of the best of the year.

If this is, indeed, Julie Bertucelli's first movie as Director, then I am truly impressed. From the very first scenes, I was ruptured by the resourcefulness and simplicity in the powerful storytelling and movement of the film. In fact, the film was a study in cinematography in which the film itself is almost an art form. The combination of simple scenes with audio transition overlays gave the viewer a broader sense of things happening -- even if by suggestion and without undue visual distraction.I found myself admiring the camera's creative photography (i.e. Director's eye) along with a layer of audio collages which surround the actors in their own roles and environment. I was as if I were taking in three art forms at once.This film would surely work well as a "study" by any budding film school enthusiastic -- particularly if the budget is lean and cast is skillful.