US museum debuts Georgian contemporary film Susa

Moviegoers across the United States (US) are being given the unique opportunity to reflect on the rich history of Georgian cinema.

The Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive has joined forces with the Museum of Modern Art’s (MoMA) Department of Film to present the largest-ever retrospective of Georgian cinema in the US. The project is called Discovering Georgian Cinema.

Georgian movie Susa directed by Rusudan Pirveli will be shown tomorrow, December 18, at the Roy and Niuta Titus Theater 2 in New York.

The film will be screened in the second part of the project, named Beyond the Blue Mountains. The exhibition launched on September 23 and will finish on December 21.

In Susa, the difficult conditions of modern Georgia are explored through the eyes of Susa, a young teenager working in an illegal distillery near Tbilisi.

Susa’s mother also worked at the illegal vodka distillery. Susa is a delivery boy and it’s grueling work that involves hiding from police and thugs, doing a little business in small bars and booths with drunks and prostitutes.

The film’s quietly observational style is enormously effective in establishing a fully realized environment of those left behind in the new capitalist Georgia, people who struggle economically but do not necessarily lose their humanity in the process.

Meanwhile, part two of the project series blends the old and new aspects of Georgian cinema by showcasing classics from the silent era by early masters such as Ivan Perestiani, Kote Mikaberidze and Vasil Amashukeli. It highlighted both the flourishing 1970s and 1980s and contemporary works with a personal appearance by of one of Georgia’s leading cinema players, Levan Koguasvhili

The Discovering Georgian Cinema exhibition was a collaboration between the University of California, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, and The Museum of Modern Art. The exhibition was organized by Susan Oxtoby, Senior Film Curator, BAM/PFA, and Jytte Jensen, Curator, Department of Film, MoMA.

Film notes used in the exhibition were adapted from research and writing by the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive.