Repentance (Tengiz Abuladze, 1987) DivX English subtitles.avi

One of the masterpieces of Georgian cinema, Repentance dates from the corrupt late 80s, the last days of the USSR.



The film traces the career of an imagined small-town dictator, Varlam Aravidze, whose cruelty is matched only by his stomach-churning smoothness and panache. Though Aravidze is only the mayor of a small Georgian town, he is clearly a reflection on dictatorship in general. Some of his techniques derive from Stalin, while his moustache, eloquence and hi-tech spectacles clearly remind one of Hitler.



The film opens with the death and burial of Aravidze. The corpse, however, refuses to stay in the ground, and each morning is rediscovered sitting stiffly in the garden. This comic, surreal beginning leaves the viewer entirely unprepared, however, for a story that will go to decidedly unenchanting depths.



The scene in which the women of the town run to meet the barges carrying logs in order to see if their menfolk, felling wood in an upstream labour camp, have carved their initials into them to show they are still alive - is one of the most memorable in all films about state terrorism.



This little-known film is truly worth seeing.