Luka Beradze: Smiling Georgia

Georgia. Countryside. A village with the name No Name. In 2012 Misha (Mikheil) Saakashvili came to the village to promise – part of his televised presidential campaign for re-election – the villagers new teeth and smiles (!) instead of the bad teeth they had. Teeth were taken out leaving many toothless or with one or two teeth. Misha lost and no new teeth were placed in the mouths of the old people, who in this very well made documentary remember what happened – or did not happen!

In this very cinematic film, where the cameraman Lomero Akhvlediani shows excellent skills in capturing the surrounding beautiful landscapes, the faces of the old people, situations, like a wedding, a pig that rubs its skin against a tree, small conversations and monologues about the missing teeth and the missing promise – Luka Beradze, the director blends the absurd with the faces and comments of the villagers, who have no belief in politics… there are some hilarious (and sad) sequences, where the election cars come to the village with their flags and slogans. A quick tour with promises like the ones Misha made way back. In that way the film is much more than “once upon a time”, it refers to today, it has a standpoint and an empathy for the villagers, who are far away from Tbilisi and politics and media.

A fantastic sequence cirles around a tv presenter, who arrive to the village to talk to people who need help from dentists; she brings some along. The first woman wants to meet her and the dentist, but her husband asks her to leave with the words – “the dentists are welcome but without camera”, the second woman has already got dentures so she is not interesting for the tv woman’s show… Oh, who asked me to contact these women for MY show!

The ruling party in Georgia is called Georgian Dream!!!

Veery good film, it will travel, deserves to!

Georgia, Germany, 2022, 61 mins.