This event will feature an introduction and post-screening Q&A with Dry Leaf director Alexandre Koberidze and composer Giorgi Koberidze.
About the film:
First screened at the 1968 Cannes Film Festival, Falling Leaves tells the story of Nico, a technician starting out at a state-run wine collective. While his friend Otar adapts seamlessly, Nico refuses to pretend that bad wine can be bottled. He also falls for Otar’s girl. Iosseliani offers up poignant observations about the clash of generations, factory life, and romance in this witty and moral tale of an individual’s resistance to oppression.
About the director:
Otar Iosseliani is one of Georgia’s most admired filmmakers who died two months before his 90th birthday in December 2023. His unconventional storytelling, anarchic style and underlying anti-authoritarianism did not suit the Soviet authorities and by 1982 Iosseliani had moved to Paris. His self-described “abstract comedies” explore human absurdity, observing behaviour rather than following a cohesive narrative. He didn’t like "intrusive" close-ups and his unique shooting style with complex movement of people, animals and objects led Ronald Bergan, writing in the Guardian, to describe him as the “true heir to Renoir, Tati and Buñuel.” (Institut français du Royaume-Uni)
TRT: 91 min
In person: Alexandre and Giorgi Koberidze
"[Falling Leaves] signaled the blossoming of the new Georgian cinema, and Iosseliani became its recognized leader." —Karsten Visarius, interfilm
"A cautionary tale brilliantly written and stunningly photographed... [Falling Leaves] offers keen observations about workers, romance and bureaucracy." —Dennis Schwartz Movie Reviews
"A seminal debut...Falling Leaves is not a black-and-white lesson in dissidence, but rather a meditation on what kind of life one should strive for." —Konstanty Kuzma, East European Film Bulletin
"A rare phenomenon in the Soviet film culture at large, as it is playful, joyous and subversive all at the same time, bursting with youthful energy and love for Georgian (wine) tradition." —Gabrielė Liepa, Lossi 36
"An inconspicuous, charming anti-conformist whose simple and profound cinema feels more like friendships than films, evoking the fading art and pleasure of conviviality. [Falling Leaves is] less an allegorical parable than a look at the petty miseries and artless delights of communal life and work." —Celluloid Liberation Front, Cinema Scope
(Available to download after screening date)