December 17, 2014, 7:00 p.m. — The Nylon Christmas Tree (1986)
The Nylon Christmas Tree
1986. USSR. Directed and cowritten by Rezo Esadze. With Ruslan Mikaberidze, Guram Petriasjvili, Zurab Kipshidze. This particularly strong ensemble film follows the stories and dreams of different characters trying to get home to celebrate the New Year. The chaotic jostling for space on the few busses that actually show up at the station in Tbilisi gives way to a more extended focus on individuals thrown together from across a wide social spectrum. By turns scary, funny, and moving, the director’s ability to illuminate a character with a few strokes is uncanny, and his control of space and rhythm distinguishes this revealing group portrait of the Georgian people during Perestroika. In Georgian; French and English subtitles. 78 min.
