Disappear Here - is the sentence that I recall of the writings by Bret Easton Ellis. The filmmaker Tinatin Gurchiani explores this desire to disappear or to make other things disappear in her bold documentary "the machine which makes everything disappear"
In less than a month she interviews various individuals in front of a decaying wall and chooses to follow some into their lives and intimate spaces. They, the protagonists, came to stand in front of her camera because they were eager to participate in a film. They are the face of Georgia's young generation and they showed up for something the filmmaker calls a casting. As she interviews her protagonists she quickly manages to find out the core issues that preoccupy their minds and establishes an equilibrium between her will to make a film and their need to share their lives with her.
In less than a month she interviews various individuals in front of a decaying wall and chooses to follow some into their lives and intimate spaces. They, the protagonists, came to stand in front of her camera because they were eager to participate in a film. They are the face of Georgia's young generation and they showed up for something the filmmaker calls a casting. As she interviews her protagonists she quickly manages to find out the core issues that preoccupy their minds and establishes an equilibrium between her will to make a film and their need to share their lives with her.
The film takes us on a journey that shows us the directors native country and its emotional landscape which often seems to be devastating and in some strange way full of compassion as we witness the tragic situations of her protagonists. A young boy working on his parents farm while he dreams of being part of a movie, a blockbuster. Or a young woman meeting her mother who abandoned her years ago. In a matter of days she finds her biological mother and confronts her with the pain that she caused and still causes. The scene is unbelievable and hard to bear as we see the daughter screaming out the scars of her childhood shedding seemingly endless tears. We also get to know a senior amateur Photographer who comes even though the film was meant to be about the young Georgians. He explains that old people are always needed, even if it is just for a small role.
We follow a young man who lives in a secluded rural area. Between hills and valleys I imagine. He is the governor of a region in which the average age lies somewhere between 60 and 70 years. Besides the elderly whom he helps "like a son" there is also a town alcoholic who follows his advice. The deeper we get into the subject and the various characters the more we get to understand the need that the director has to show her country. In the discussion following the film at Doc Leipzig, we discover that she asked evey single one that same question " if you had a machine which makes things disappear, what would it be?". "Myself" is the only clear answer we get to see on camera. A young girl who we observe in a club scene confides that she would make herself disappear.
I wonder to what extent our brains are the Houdini's of our lives that sometimes pick and audience-brain-cell and allowing it to vanish without a trace.
The film ends with an incredible improvised soliloquy which emphasizes on lonesomeness and the absurdity of life recited by a young depressed Georgian.
Giving you the wrong idea is far to easy and giving you a closer look could only actually occur by giving you a copy of the film. But I hope that the trailer will do for now.
The film won the World Cinema Directing Award at Sundance, Documentary: Tinatin Gurchiani, The Machine Which Makes Everything Disappear
http://www.filmlinc.com/daily/entry/sundance-fest-picks-winners
We follow a young man who lives in a secluded rural area. Between hills and valleys I imagine. He is the governor of a region in which the average age lies somewhere between 60 and 70 years. Besides the elderly whom he helps "like a son" there is also a town alcoholic who follows his advice. The deeper we get into the subject and the various characters the more we get to understand the need that the director has to show her country. In the discussion following the film at Doc Leipzig, we discover that she asked evey single one that same question " if you had a machine which makes things disappear, what would it be?". "Myself" is the only clear answer we get to see on camera. A young girl who we observe in a club scene confides that she would make herself disappear.
I wonder to what extent our brains are the Houdini's of our lives that sometimes pick and audience-brain-cell and allowing it to vanish without a trace.
Giving you the wrong idea is far to easy and giving you a closer look could only actually occur by giving you a copy of the film. But I hope that the trailer will do for now.
The film won the World Cinema Directing Award at Sundance, Documentary: Tinatin Gurchiani, The Machine Which Makes Everything Disappear
http://www.filmlinc.com/daily/entry/sundance-fest-picks-winners
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