December 11, 2014, 4:00 p.m. — Falling Leaves aka When the Leaves Fall (1967)
Falling Leaves aka When the Leaves Fall
1967. USSR. Directed by Otar Iosseliani. With Ramaz Guerorgoliani, Marina Kartzivadze, Gueorguy Kharabadze. Falling Leaves is typical of the best Georgian films—and of Iosseliani in particular—in seeming light and low-key on the surface, until the satire begins to cut very deep. The film begins with observations of awkward adolescence in a young boy who gets his first job in a wine factory. Soon he notices that the manager is fiddling his quotas, and eventually he learns the hard way that corruption is the only way to get by in an economic system that works one way in theory, and another in day-to-day practice. In Georgian; English subtitles. 80 min.
