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Cinema club. Part 21/2
Does "Street Days" have any chances of winning an Oscar?
Less than "The Edge" has. This movie was shot for a CIS audience.
We and our neighbouring republics will understand it, because the approaches are similar, the problems are similar.
We are watching this movie and reassembling our past. We understand cause and effect relations.
For a US audience it will be absolutely exotic, a mysterious country in a mysterious time period.
All these problems are too complicated, their sources are unclear.
At best, they will consider it an ordinary thriller, a detective story, or they will love the main character, and due to him "Street Days" can win the Oscar for the best foreign movie.
However, if the Oscar goes to this movie, it will be partially unfair, because it will be given not for its benefits that should be appreciated.
Let's continue with the plot of the movie. You always emphasize the clarity and parable nature of Georgian cinema.
What do you think, is this movie shot in line with traditional Georgian cinema? Any allusions to Abuladze?
This movie is a new wave of Georgian cinema. At least it correlates with the movies shot during the last 10-15 years.
Partially it correlates with Russian auteur movies. It is realistic, naturalistic, philosophic and emphasises the social problems of previous times.
It is very difficult to shoot a movie about current times. The USA doesn't have this problem. Almost all American films concern the present times.
We can even see a calendar with a particular date. Yes, even in regular series, the President is Obama. A reform is adopted, the next day it is shown in a series.
A tragedy has happened, it is reflected.
Thus, they have maximum contact with reality. Our directors shoot movies about a province, where you can't say what time period it is, a modern town that still lives by the laws of the 90s.
Why does this tendency exist? Due to a financial shortage?
No, the budget is not the point. To shoot a movie about the present time is very difficult.
Directors probably suppose that an artist should work timelessly.
I think, for them it is easier to take a well-known problem that existed in the half-forgotten past, so you can imagine what you want.
If you shoot a movie about an existing house today, you can hear that you are lying, because someone will always know better.
Whereas shooting a film about the 60s is safer, few remember that time.
Of course, when making a movie about the past, a director is trying to solve current problems, he searches for their sources in the 60s, 70s, 90s.
It washes out time frames. It is an attempt to find sources of our problems in the past. On the one hand, this is good.
On the other hand, we are constantly watching movies about history, we don't see the contemporary view.
What does a contemporary director think about our times? Where is the movie about 2010 in Russia, Georgia, Armenia?
A movie about the 2nd of February, the 2nd of April or about today, the 27th of November.
There is "Olympus Inferno".
Yes, that's an exception. It is a movie with a top theme. Its genre is agitation. What about a film a month or a year later not concerning the problem of war. We won't get it.