Aprili (1961)

Genres - Drama  |   Run Time - 50 min.  |   Countries - Georgia  |   MPAA Rating - NR
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Synopsis by Jonathan Crow

Recalling the charm and humor of a Jacques Tati film, this fantasy, by noted Georgian director Otar Iosseliani, is about young love undone by consumerism. Using almost no dialogue, and set amid the dilapidated architecture of Tbilisi, the film focuses on a tall young man (Tanya Chantouria) as he woos a pretty lass (Gia Chirakadze). Though their apartment is rundown and nearly empty, their love makes the water flow, the electricity run, and the flames flicker on their stove. Yet when they start outfitting their abode with newly purchased furniture and precious odds and ends, they start to squabble. Shot in 1962, and almost immediately banned by the Soviet authorities for excessive formalism, this film made its first screening with its full 50-minute running time at the 2000 Cannes Film Festival.