Vladimir Gvishiani

This chamber drama is set in Georgia on the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. A simple peasant family makes its living by selling yogurt which the Magdany widow takes every morning to the town market. Once, in their mother’s absence, the children – six-year-old Mikho and three-year-old Kato – found an abandoned donkey on a road leading to their village. The foundling was fed, tended, and the moment the donkey opened its big, tender eyes, it was named “Lurdja”, which means “blue-eyed”. Surrounded by love and care, the donkey became a big help in the poor household. But this idyll was not to last long…

Nunu and Iago are in love with each other. The married guard Girgola wants to get hold of the woman. Girgola gets Iago arrested and makes Nunu marry his retarded brother. On one occasion he finds the woman alone and rapes her. Nunu jumps in the river to commit suicide but gets saved by Iago’s friends. Iago escapes from jail, but Girgola attacks his hideout and haves him killed together with his friends. Girgola also kills Nunu’s old father and accuses Nunu of the murder. Nunu is tied to a pole and dies in the exile.

The film is based on Georgian medieval epic poem “The Knight in the Panther’s Skin” by Shota Rustaveli and depicts an episode of Nestan-Darejan’s release from Kajeti fortress.

Joto is a famous doctor in one of the villages of Abkhazia, although he hastened the lives of many sick people with his ignorance. After Joto's next victim, the village communes and the village council decide to build a hospital. Joto is against that idea, but his child's injury will make him change opinion.

Dariko's family has been opressed by the wealthy farmer Droidze. He made the goverment send Dariko's husband, Simona to the gulag and after that took their land.For killing Droidze's son, who intended to insult a woman who was left alone, Dariko is also threatened with imprisonment, but she escapes imprisonment, runs away and becomes the leader of squad who defend the oppressed people.

Loosely based on Aleksandr Kuprin's short story "The White Poodle".