Soviet Georgian classic to return to Cannes Film Festival 55 years after screening
A still from ‘The White Caravan’. The film has been restored by Georgian professionals of the National Archives of Georgia. Photo: National Parliamentary Library of Georgia.
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Soviet Georgian feature The White Caravan will return to the big screen at the Cannes Film Festival next month, 55 years after the film was first screened to audiences of the French cinema event.
Directed by Eldar Shengelaia and Tamaz Meliava in 1963, the feature was part of the competition at the following year’s Cannes cinema celebration and will return to the French Riviera with Shengelaia in attendance.
The one-hour, 37-minute feature will be part of the Cannes Classics programme and highlight the work done by Georgian film restoration professionals to preserve the classic and improve its technical condition.
It will be screened alongside a dozen other restored classics created by directors including Oliver Stone, Tao Jin and Jean Renoir between the 1930s-1990s.
The 25 years of La Cité de la peur, The Shining presented by Alfonso Cuarón, 50 years of Easy Rider in the company of Peter Fonda, Luis Buñuel in the spotlight, Lina Wertmüller in her presence...
— Festival de Cannes (@Festival_Cannes) 26 April 2019
Discover all the guests & events of #CannesClassics 2019: https://t.co/Tcj6qivRKQ pic.twitter.com/pPJu6L2B8h
Involving a cast of popular Soviet Georgian actors,The White Caravan shows harsh conditions facing shepherds in the country’s remote highland provinces and a dilemma faced by their offspring lured by prospects of city life.
The feature centres around the family of shepherd Martia Akhlouri, whose son Gela decides against continuing his father’s trade and leaves for a city. A regret follows the decision after the elder shepherd, left without his son’s help, is overwhelmed while scrambling to save his sheep in a hurricane and dies.
Shengelaia and Meliava based the 10-part film on screenplay by Merab Eliozishvili, as the feature was produced at the Georgian Film studio — known for Soviet Georgian classics created between the 1930s-1980s.
Shengelaia said in an interview about the shooting of the film the crew had spent three years producing it due to having to help shepherds manage sheep herds for scenes — hence only having enough time to shot “a single scene” during each filming day.
A poster for the 1963-directed feature. Photo: National Parliamentary Library of Georgia.
The White Caravan premiered in the Soviet Union in 1964 before it was screened in Cannes. The work received the USSR’s 1964 Special Prize for Poetic Depiction of Human Labour, among other honours.
Its screening was suspended based on a request by the Association of Protection and Development of Cinema Production, before the rolls of the film underwent restoration work at the National Archives of Georgia.
Supported by the Georgian National Film Centre, the restoration effort included work on colour, grading and image stabilisation for the classic film.
The Cannes Film Festival will run between May 14-25.
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