Tengiz Abuladze

From the Top!..

An anthology film comprising two comedy shorts about life in rural Ossetia.

Somebody Else's Children

Nato, a student, befriends two children in the street, a brother and a sister. She does not know that their father just broke up with his wife on the grounds that she was not able to find a common language with the children. Once he meets with Nato they fall in love, but their relationship does not last long because one day he meets his estranged wife by chance and goes off to be with her, abandoning both Nato and the children. Desperately Nato wants to take off, too, but realizes she can not leave the children alone.

Magdana's Donkey

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…

A Necklace for My Beloved

Three guys are living in a Dagestan aul, and all three are in love with the blue-eyed Serminaz. According to a mountaineers’ tradition, a young man seeking the hand and the heart of a beloved girl has to make her a present that she would remember for the rest of her life. The friends set out in search of the special gift…

Me, Grandma, Iliko and Ilarion

The residents of a Georgian village bungle their way through war, peace, life and death.

Who Invented the Wheel?

After graduating from school, Seva Losev gets a job at a chemical plant. A lyrical film about the first experiences of independent life and first love.

Repentance

The day after his funeral, the corpse of Varlam Aravidze, the mayor of a small Georgian town, turns up in his son's garden. Although it is secretly reburied, the corpse keeps returning until the police capture the local woman who is responsible. This woman says that Varlam should never be laid to rest since his Stalin-like reign of terror led to the disappearance of her family and friends.

The Plea

Brave sons of Khevsureti and Kisteti fight against each to protect their homelands. But, they confront faulty domestic traditions to respect enemy’s true prowess and find themselves in conflict with own compatriots.