18/10/2006

An old man and his grandson travel with an empty coffin across Georgia. Gela Babluani, a 28 year-old Georgian living in Paris (where he founded the Les Films de la Strada production company) received wide acclaim for the originality of his debut feature 13 (Tzameti) [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Fanny Saadi
interview: Gela Babluani
film profile], winner of the Lion of the Future at the 2005 Venice Film Festival and the Grand Prix at the 2006 Sundance Festival.

His second film, The Legacy [+see also:
trailer
film profile], which he directed with his father Temur, features once again the same atmosphere of predestination and the same sense of sacrifice from the preceding one.

In 13 (Tzameti) there were those who watched the immoral act of suicide and placed bets on the Russian roulette of the lives of the derelicts subjected to it. In The Legacy – in competition at the RomeFilmFest – there are those who observe the immoral act of homocide, this time through an amateur video camera.

(Cinematic) voyeurism thus bears witness to the post-Soviet bloc crisis of a great country struggling today with the aftermath of a civil war and a disastrous economy. "We wrote the film in a moment of desperation, we wanted to represent Georgia after the fall of the [Berlin] Wall, but with an opening towards hope, to a still unknown future. Today, we are beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel", said the directors.

Produced by Films de la Strada and Quasar Pictures, in co-production with Premium Films and Solimane Productions, and released in France a month ago by MK2, The Legacy is a powerful film that does not, however, have the shock factor of 13 (Tzameti), which the young director will shoot in America as a remake to be produced by Brad Pitt (see Focus).

"I received many offers from the US, and it was a story to which I wanted to return", said Gela. "There was enough material to develop a new film, different from the first one, with a dramatically different structure".

(Translated from Italian)