Gia is a young percussionist in the Tbilisi Orchestra. His most important job is to hit the timpani at the beginning and the end of a concert. But he is more interested in unexpected encounters and meeting girls than in working for the orchestra. He spends his day running all sorts of errands, meeting friends, helping complete strangers, chatting, rushing around, and never finding time to finish anything, not even to write down the melody that is always playing in his head. Otar Iosseliani, who passed away last year, belonged to the golden age of cinema in Georgia. The director has said that this film shows how to live and how not to live, depending on who is watching - the film was banned by the Soviets in 1971 because of Gia's irrationality and its inconsistency with the ideals of being a Soviet man. However, Once Upon a Time There Was a Singing Blackbird was released at Cannes in 1974 and brought Iosseliani international acclaim.
About the film
Details
- Running time
- 1 hr. 25 min.
- Country, year
- Georgia, 1970
- Genre
- Drama
- Language
- Georgian, Russian
- Subtitles
- Lithuanian, English
- Age rating
- Pegi 13
Credits
- Director
- Otar Iosseliani
- Screenplay
- Dimitri Eristavi, Otar Iosseliani, Sh. Kakichashvili, Semyon Lungin, Otar Mekhrishvili, Ilya Nusinov
- Producers
- Zurab Chkheidze, G. Gvenetadze
- Cinematography
- Zaza Gudavadze, Leri Machaidze
- Cast
- Gela Kandelaki, Gogi Chkheidze, Jansug Kakhidze, Irine Jandieri, Irina Mdivani, Irakli Kokrashvili, Natia Anjaparidze
- More information
- www.imdb.com
Director
Otar Iosseliani
One of the world's most important directors, Otar Iosseliani (1934-2023) was born in Tbilisi and studied music, mathematics and filmmaking. Constantly censored by the Soviet authorities, he won the Fipresci Award at the 1982 Berlin Festival for Pastorale and emigrated to France. His films wittily explored human behaviour, absurdity, conformism and globalisation, and were influenced by directors such as Jean Renoir, Jean Vigo, Jacques Tati and Luis Buñuel. In 2015, Scanorama screened his last international film, Winter Song.
