You know what this love is like? It's Autumn, it's the last one

Continuing my trip up The Guardian's top 50 films of 2024

#39 :  Hashvi Shashvi Maq'vali (Blackbird Blackbird Blackberry)

Elene Naveriani’s film, about a single woman in a remote Georgian village whose life is changed for ever after a near-death experience, is a gentle gem about midlife love and loneliness.

This is a film that stood quite a large chance of getting skipped over but our last Georgian film was better than expected and there's a run of foreign films coming up which sound unremittingly depressing or cryptic - so I'm going to give this one a go.

Hmmm - it's a peculiar one. We basically follow Etero (Eka Chavleishvili) who is a middle-aged, not classically beautiful, lonely woman who nearly dies by falling in a river, which results in her being more open to new possibilities - one of them being Murman (Temiko Chichinadze), a middle-aged, not classically handsome, lonely man. But does she want to surrender her hard-earned freedom and independence? And well, that's about all I can tell you...

Etero runs a shop but she doesn't seem to spend a lot of time there and she has some female acquaintances (one of whom is her sister) but they're really horrible to her, so it's not clear why she hangs out with them - but for large portions of this film, very little happens. However, I did read a review that said I should stick with it till the end and I certainly agree with that because it goes to an inter place I very much wasn't expecting.

The Guardian's description of "a gentle gem about midlife love and loneliness" is spot on - their full review describes it as "a film which tells us what most films contrive to ignore: love and sex is not just for the lovely and the sexy and the young", which is also very true. It's a very touching film about normal people and how what you think you want might not be what you get. I really liked the central story, but some of the other details are slightly less well defined for me eg I really didn't understand the relationship between Etero and her sister and niece and it felt like they were trying to make it mean something, so some of the writing could have been sharper for me.

I wouldn't say any of the actors involved are absolutely top notch, but they do a good enough job and Eka carries the film well making you warm to a character who isn't the most likeable. What is strange is that everyone moves really slowly in the film - I appreciate that it was probably an artistic decision, but I watched the second half of the film on double speed and it actually looked more natural (except for the speech, but that's what subtitles are for!).

I'd also say it's filmed well enough without being outstanding - it's reasonably obvious the budget wasn't huge but there are some nice enough outdoor shots and it's generally got a pretty natural feel, with the camera doing a decent job of lingering when it needs to.

I'm not saying everyone should rush out and watch this, but if you like some slow burn European indie cinema, then there are far worse options out there - it's available to stream on BFIPlayer or to rent in all the usual places.

#40 - Competent