There Once Was a Singing Blackbird

Director: Otar Iosseliani

1969 / 98min / 4K DCP

Gia (Gela Kandelaki), a timpanist in the Tbilisi Philharmonic, has made a science of getting to work just on time to hit his lone cue and then dashing out the door, so as to leave the rest of his hours open for sweet-talking women and carousing with pals. A marvelous character study of an open-handed, incurably impulsive young man infected by the bustling, on-the-go energy of the city around him, and a film that careens along with the same freewheeling spontaneity displayed by its protagonist. Screens with Georgian Ancient Songs, which Iosseliani described thusly: “It’s a film about Georgian traditional polyphony. Georgian songs are always sung in one, two, three or even four voices. It’s a story about how these songs are structured. And at the same time we show what life was like in the old days. The official reaction to the film was one of indignation. I managed to steal a print of the film and keep it safe.”

Georgian Ancient Songs (Otar Ioseliani, 1969, 20 mins)

Once Upon a Time There Once Was a Singing Blackbird (Otar Iosseliani, 1971, 78 mins)

New 4K restoration commissioned by Pastorale Productions.

Distributor: The Cinema Guild. Les Films du Losange

Inroduction by programmer Edo Choi on Sunday, August 16th