Tacticalin An absolute waste of money

Grimossfer Clever and entertaining enough to recommend even to members of the 1%

Married Baby Just intense enough to provide a much-needed diversion, just lightweight enough to make you forget about it soon after it’s over. It’s not exactly “good,” per se, but it does what it sets out to do in terms of putting us on edge, which makes it … successful?

Scotty Burke It is interesting even when nothing much happens, which is for most of its 3-hour running time. Read full review

Lee Eisenberg Joseph Stalin's purges were one of the most horrific chapters in Soviet history. A famous movie about this period is Nikita Mikhalkov's "Burnt by the Sun". An equally important one is Tengiz Abuladze's "Repentance". This one emphasizes not only the terror visited upon the population, but the efforts to expose the truth and prevent whitewashing of those who committed the genocide. The subject is a man who shares physical similarities with Hitler and Stalin, but is based on Lavrentiy Beria (one of Stalin's acolytes). As mayor of a town in the Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic, he doesn't hesitate to persecute those whom he deems disloyal. Years later, a woman goes to unusual lengths to reveal the truth about his handiwork.Not surprisingly, the movie couldn't get released immediately. It wasn't until after Gorbachev came to power that it got a release. I'd say that the ugly parts of history are more important to know about that the pleasant parts of history, to ensure that they don't get repeated. I understand that Beria was particularly vicious.We don't get to see many movies from Georgia. I wish that I could see more of them. Part of it is that I like getting to see cultures that we don't often get to see, but I would also like to have more insight into their perspective on things. As the 2008 war made clear, Russo-Georgian tensions didn't end with the collapse of the Soviet Union.Anyway, it's an outstanding movie. While it is a bit long, the plot makes up for that. I recommend it.

Teyss "Repentance" is part of a trilogy produced on the long term, together with "The Plea" (1968) and "The Wishing Tree" (1977). Nonetheless, it can be watched as stand-alone. Its originality, outstanding aesthetics and compelling themes constitute a landmark in former USSR cinema, as well as worldwide. It is a fascinating metaphor on power, tyranny and ideology. *** WARNING: CONTAINS SPOILERS ***The structure of the movie is as of "Russian puppets" (this comparison is of pure form, since it is Georgian): stories are imbricated in one another. There are six sequences, organised on four different levels.1. PRESENT. A woman, Ketevan, and a man learn the death of Varlam.2. IMAGINATION. (We first think it is a continuation of present action. The true nature of this sequence will only be revealed at the end.) Ketevan imagines she unearths Varlam's body and faces trial.3. PAST. Ketevan during the trial describes how her childhood and family were destroyed by Varlam. It is hence an "imagined flashback" since it is included in part 2.4. FANTASY. Four scenes are included in parts 3 and 5: Nino dreams (she and Sandro try to escape Varlam), Abel daydreams (he talks to a devilish character who is actually Varlam), Merab fantasises twice (he sees Varlam is crazy, Guliko dances near Varlam's body).5. IMAGINATION (same level as 2). We come back to the trial.6. PRESENT (same level as 1). We understand parts 2 to 5 were imagined by Ketevan.This "Russian puppets" structure generates a sensation of confinement, on line with the environment: the story is limited to a town without any news from outside; time seems suspended although the action takes place over decades; we are lost in a indefinite period between modernity and Middle Ages (the horse carriage, the medieval armours). The confinement materialises an allegory: the focus is on symbols, not proportions nor accuracy.Another trademark of the movie is its unique mix of reality and fantasy. For instance, Abel daydreams he sees Varlam eating a fish: when he comes to, his hands actually grasp fish bones. When Merab imagines Varlam is crazy, the scene seems real, and is probably based on actual facts: Varlam was somewhat lunatic, a feature that might have worsened with age. Conversely, many supposedly "authentic" scenes feel unreal. When Sandro comes back, he meets a man in suit and a blindfolded woman (Justice) playing piano outside. When Nino and her young daughter Ketevan look for Sandro's name on logs, the atmosphere is dreamlike or, rather, nightmarish: outstanding images, pace and music make this scene one of the most compelling of the movie, and of cinema in general.The confusion between reality and fantasy even casts doubt on the movie's structure and credibility. Did Ketevan imagine all this, or only partly? What is true or not? Metaphorically, this incertitude illustrates the absurdity of tyranny: everything is irrational. Power is unpredictable: Varlam is grotesque but omnipotent; he suddenly changes from sympathy to repression; stupid accomplices become powerful. Nobody is safe: rules are arbitrary; people can be arrested or released randomly; a centuries-old temple is destroyed for no reason; opponents confess stupid acts (digging a tunnel between London and Bombay) and denounce everybody to weaken the system. Power transits from one generation to another unchanged (the same actor plays Varlam and his son Abel)… until it destroys itself: Merab, unable to embrace the system or change it, commits suicide; Abel eventually unearths Varlam and throws him to the crows, exactly as Ketevan said she wanted to.To carry on, despotism will use reasons that look logical but are arbitrary: scientific "progress" overriding everything else (the experiments endangering the temple), a minority presented as "the people" (the letter denouncing Sandro), external threats (repeated a few times), necessity of hardships that will bring better tomorrows (on the glorious music of "Ode to Joy"), senseless quotes celebrated as Gospel ("We will catch the black cat in the dark room, even if there is no cat"). The references to USSR regime are obvious. However, "Repentance" also delivers a general message about dictatorship: Varlam looks at the same time like Beria (glasses), Hitler (moustache) and Mussolini (black shirt, braces). Deep down, all tyrannies rely on irrationality that pretends to be rational.On top of power, "Repentance" is a reflection about ideology. Varlam is cultured: he knows about painting and religious art, he sings, recites Shakespeare, quotes Confucius. So is his son Abel, who plays the piano. Yet knowledge is nothing, and even dangerous, if it is used for wrong reasons. Culture turns against itself: Sandro's paintings are confiscated; the artist Sandro is deported; the temple is destroyed; Varlam promotes precisely what Shakespeare's sonnet criticised. To save the world, we do not need brains but a heart.A heart, granted, but how? Crushed by oppression, people are powerless. Ketevan, whose family was destroyed by Varlam, now feeds a ridiculous little man who supports the dictator; she can only imagine what she could do. Varlam's grandson commits suicide. Opponents collaborate and/or are deported. People fantasise to escape reality.Nevertheless, for a heart and to escape oppression, one can turn to religion. As a reminder, religion was heavily repressed in USSR. Allusions to this repression include: the man at the beginning eats cakes shaped as churches; Varlam in Abel's dream eats a fish (reference to Christ: ICTUS); the temple crumbles and is finally destroyed. Yet as a sign of hope, the movie closes on the wise words of an old lady: "What good is a road if it doesn't lead to a temple?" Spirituality will carry on regardless.In the end, what is the "Repentance" of the title? Merab's who realises how evil his grandfather was? Abel's who throws away Varlam's body? Ketevan's who regrets being unable to perform her imagined revenge? Others' lack of repentance? As the movie, the title encloses different levels of interpretation and remains partly mysterious.

adriennenoracarter Repentance is a film one would expect to come out of Perestroika and Glasnost. It is a Stalinist/early Soviet metaphor that would have never been seen before this time. The story begins in present day, or in this case 1984. In a small Georgian town, the mayor, Varlam Aravidze, dies. The seemingly important citizens of the community come to pay their condolences at his funeral. However, one day after the funeral, the corpse is found at the home of the mayor's son. The corpse is reburied . . . but is removed from the crypt a second and third time. A woman is taken into custody and put on trial. She admits to having done it; much of this part of the film is full of flashbacks focusing on Varlam's terrible reign, revealing her motives for having done it. Varlam looks like a combination of dictators. There are traces of Hitler (the mustache) and Mussolini (the black shirt), but of course he can also be compared to Stalin and Beria, two of the cruelest names known in Soviet history, both who were of Georgian origin. Varlam was the Stalinist figure, and the two other generations of his family could be considered a lot of the rest of Soviet history. His grandson clearly represents the period of Glasnost and Perestroika. He has trouble accepting what his family has done, and he commits suicide because of it (I'm sure it was not meant to be this way, but it could be considered a foreshadowing of the end of the Soviet Union). The son of Varlam is sort of everything in between Stalin and Perestroika (except the anti-Stalin Krushchev years).This was a very interesting movie; it was a little too full of symbolism, but beautifully made. It was a very interesting change watching a Georgian Soviet film instead of a Russian made Soviet film.

gray4 This wonderful Georgian film emerged from the last years of the Soviet regime, but seems to have disappeared without trace. The final film of a trilogy by the veteran film-maker Tengiz Abuladze, it portrays a composite monster, Varlam (Hitler moustache, Mussolini shirt & braces, Stalin boots, Beria pince-nez) and his equally grotesque son Abel, both played by the same actor.The film has a surrealist, dreamlike quality about it, framed by initial and final scenes in a cake-shop and with police almost comic in medieval armour. The main actions which initiate the plot are surrealist with the repeated exhumation of Varlam's corpse. The two monstrous central characters are no more than mayors of a small Georgian town - but there is nothing comic about their actions and the reign of terror they bring to the community. The elements of tyranny are revealed economically, with hints of atrocities and disappearances but only one brief torture scene. The overall message is that of personal responsibility. The tyrannical regime is not an anonymous bureaucracy but the deliberate creation of evil men. And the final repentance is a horrific recognition of those responsibilities. An unmissable film, beautifully made and superbly acted - if you can find it.