Them

The Civil War in Russia has just finished. The sixth chief of militia came to a small town in the south. Five Glodov’s predecessors had been killed by a gang of elusive Vakhromeyev. Now Glodov and his crew are going to have a mortal combat with the smart gangsters…

A young filmmaker named Dato has no money to make a movie, so he hangs out drinking and brooding all day in the capital of the former Soviet republic, Georgia. He is also writing a screenplay. Excerpts from his script, shot in black-and-white, are cut into his story. All the stories, including the framing story about Dato and his friends, are interwoven so that they become one long narrative about contemporary life in Georgia.

The young protagonist of the film is in love with an older woman with children, and this further complicates his already tense relationship with his family and friends. Swimming against the current is accompanied by many difficulties, and this woman is the only solace for Temo.

Boy’s first encounter with human cruelty occurs as hunters kill and skin a bear. The gruesome scene sparks physical disgust, spiritual anxiety, profound guilt, and growing alienation from the adults.