Depuis qu’Otar est parti (2003) - film review

Whilst her brother Otar is illegally employed as a construction worker in Paris, Marina remains in her hometown of Tblisi, Georgia.  She lives with her elderly mother, Eka, who is devoted to Otar, and daughter Ada.  When Marina learns that her brother has been killed in an accident, she is unable to break the news to her mother, and so engages Ada in a scheme to ensure she never finds out.  However, Eka soon senses that something is wrong and decides to visit her son in Paris…

Three generations of women failing to connect in a world of change and uncertainty forms the basis for Julie Bertuccelli’s first film, an engaging social-realist drama which, despite its apparent simplicity, seems to be loaded with meaning.  In some respects, the film is an allegory for life in the former Soviet Union countries one generation after the fall of the Berlin Wall.  Eka, the idealistic grandmother, represents the past - she can recall only the glories of earlier times, the Russian Empire under the tsars and then the Soviet Union under Stalin.  Ada is the present, the modern youth of an East Europe hankering after the fruits of capitalism, who sees nothing good in the crumbling  legacy of Soviet rule.  Caught between these two is Marina, the in-between generation who has seen the collapse of Communism but has little faith in capitalism to improve matters.  Marina is the most pitiful of the three women, because she, unlike her mother and daughter, is stuck in the reality of her present situation.  Disillusioned,  she has neither the comfort of past memories nor faith for a better future.

The experiences of these three women and their view of the world around them shape how they react to the loss of the beloved fourth family member, Otar.  Eka transforms him into a demi-god, something to be worshipped from a distance, Marina is at best ambivalent towards him, at worst resentful, whilst Ada sees him as little more than an abstract role model – she doesn’t have any real emotional attachment for him but he inspires her to seek a better life for herself.  It is a simple portrayal of three women coping with life in a world that appears to have lost its sense of purpose, of three women who find it hard to communicate and live together, but who appear to be bound together forever by the web of deceit they weave for themselves as they try to reconcile their own needs with what they believe to be in the best interests of the family – or rather, what remains of it (the male family members are conspicuous by their absence).

Prior to making this film, Julie Bertuccelli had earned a reputation as a documentary film maker, and this film has something of the feel of a documentary, with some austere cinematography, bleak locations and rigorously naturalistic performances.  Esther Gorintin (a 90-year-old former dental assistant) is particularly memorable in the role of the grandmother Eka, an understated yet exceptionally poignant portrayal of old age.  The film won the award in the Best First Fictional Film category at the 2004 Césars.

© James Travers 2007

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