Elene Naveriani Talks ‘Blackbird Blackbird Blueberry’

When director Elene Naveriani first learn the e book upon which “Blackbird Blackbird Blueberry” relies, they instantly acknowledged a complete neighborhood. “It was the story of my mother, the story of my aunt, the story of my neighbor,” Naveriani tells Selection. “I may title so many ladies round me that they had been actually going by the identical inside sort of battle, and I discovered it crucial to deliver this character to life on display.”

Taking part in in Administrators’ Fortnight, “Blackbird Blackbird Blueberry” follows 48-year-old Etero (Eka Chavleishvili – the filmmaker’s first and solely selection for the character) as she discovers her sexuality and enters into her first relationship later in life. Within the movie’s startling opening sequence, shopkeeper Etero survives a brush with demise, returns to her small nook retailer, and seduces the primary man who walks in – having her preliminary sexual relation on a momentary whim.

Although Etero’s case is a case extra of an outlier, the emotional baseline is definitely shared by all. “All of us imagined ourselves dying, questioning the way it will occur,” says Naveriani. “And generally you get to this edge the place you understand you can’t go on together with your routine. And one thing sort of exhibits that it’s time to change, and time to alter.” 

In Etero’s case, she begins a clandestine relationship with that first man who walked in, the amiable deliveryman Murman (Temiko Chinchinadze), whereas reappraising and taking inventory of her personal ambitions as the subsequent chapter of her life opens. In that sense, the movie is concerned with each the sensual and non secular points of a girl discovering herself anew.

“Our our bodies could rework over time and we discover,” says Naveriani. “However Etero’s actual change is discovering peace with herself and her need, understanding what she needs and the way she needs it. It’s this journey of accepting and embracing oneself, and I feel that’s the character’s life aim, one thing she’s performed intuitively ever since she born.”

After all, Etero can also be a social creature; she is a touchstone of her small Georgian village and a supply of bemusement for her child-rearing neighbors. “They see her as a misplaced trigger,” says the filmmaker. “However deep down, everybody needs to be like her, as a result of she’s made her personal decisions in life, they usually haven’t. And in this type of Georgian society, cruelty generally is a protection.”

“She has her personal private relationship with this place she grew up, this place she loves, [and thus] can see past this cruelty,” Naveriani continues. “I can determine with this type of love-hate feeling. You’ll be able to love your hometown with out feeling completely an element it, belonging and never belonging, and discover a sort of hidden magnificence [just for you.]”

The third function from Naveriani, whose “Moist Sand,” received a finest actor plaudit at Locarno, “Blackbird Blackbird Blueberry,” is produced by Thomas Reichlin and Britta Rindelaub of Geneva-based Alva Movie, behind Sundance Grand Jury Prize winner “Hive,” and Ketie Danelia of Takes Movie, which produced Levan Akin’s Cannes Administrators’ Fortnight participant “And Then We Danced.”

Paris-based Totem Movies handles worldwide gross sales on “Blackbird Blackbird Blueberry.” 

Trying forward, Naveriani will subsequent sort out the story of Saint Nino – a 3^rd century apostle credited with bringing Christianity to Georgia – whereas transposing the narrative to the current day. Although early within the offing, the mission will little question adhere to Naveriani’s wider filmmaking ethos.

“Once I watch a movie I wish to have an equal house with the context and the character,” they clarify. “And I like having the selection of what I’m going to take a look at and what I’m going to really feel, that it’s probably not directed or pressured. And that’s additionally how I method my very own the tales; it shapes what I write and the way I movie.”