Otar Iosseliani’s fables of modern life

Renowned in his native Georgia as one of the nation’s greatest filmmakers, Otar Iosseliani spent the majority of his career in his adoptive home of France after emigrating in the early eighties. The news that Cinema Guild will be releasing a slate of restorations has occasioned an extensive retrospective in New York, where audiences can acquaint themselves with the director’s bustling long takes, mordant satire, and anarchic sympathy for the drunks, losers, and misfits of both Soviet communism and western capitalism. Otar Iosseliani: Fables of Modern Life opens this week at Asia Society before heading over to Metrograph, and we’re delighted to say that Klassiki will be co-presenting the programme at both venues.

This week, host Sam Goff speaks with Edo Choi, Film Programmer at Metrogaph, and Inney Prakash, Curator of Film at Asia Society, about the retrospective and Iosseliani’s unique cinematic sensibility, which bears comparison with directors from Jacques Tati to Jean-Luc Godard, and even the Safdie Brothers.

Fables of Modern Life kicks off at Asia Society on 24 and 25 July, then continues at Metrograph from 8-23 August.

Klassiki subscribers can watch a double bill of Iosseliani titles on the site from this Thursday 23: his wonderful debut feature Falling Leaves, and the later French farce Farewell, Home Sweet Home.

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Intro music by Juliet Merchant.