The story of self-taught Georgian painter Niko Pirosmani.
Cast overview: | |||
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Avtandil Varazi | ... | Niko Pirosmanishvili |
Dodo Abashidze | ... | Kinto (as David Abashidze) | |
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Zurab Kapianidze | ... | Ushangi (as Zura Qapianidze) |
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Teimuraz Beridze | ... | drug Pirosmanishvili |
Boris Tsipuria | ... | Dimitriy | |
Kote Daushvili | ... | muzh sestri Pirosmanishvili (as Shota Daushvili) | |
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Margo Gvaramadze | ... | (as Mariya Gvaramadze) |
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Nino Seturidze | ||
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Rosalia Mintshin | ... | (as Rozaliya Minchin) |
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Givi Aleksandria | ... | (as Givi Aleqsandria) |
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Aleksandre Rekhviashvili | ... | (as Aleqsandre Rekhviashvili) |
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Amir Kakabadze | ... | Lado |
The story of self-taught Georgian painter Niko Pirosmani.
This little known film is quite strange yet well worth watching. Made in 1969, it tells the story of one Nico Pirosmanishvilli or Pirosmani, a primitive Georgian painter, not very well known in the west, who lived at the turn of the last century. The movie shows his paintings (I must admit I was not terribly impressed by them), his proud poverty, his antisocial behavior. A lot of the movie is shot in sparse, mildly surreal tableaux. When he sets up a shop with his brother, for example, it is not located in the city, but in the middle of a plain. There are some fine shots of the old, dilapidated quarters of Tbilissi, where Pirosmani lived since middle age, barely making ends meet by painting in taverns. I don't know if there is a Caucasian school of film-making, but this film suggests a saner, decaffeinated Paradjanov (who, as a matter of fact, did film a short about Pirosmani).