Eldar Shengelaia

Classic Georgian cinema has long been defined by the auteurs who lit up the Soviet studio system with their poetic visual imagination: Tengiz Abuladze, Otar Iosseliani, and others. Perhaps the most under-appreciated of these figures outside of Georgia, Eldar Shengelaia is nonetheless one of the most significant film artists the country produced, his works retaining their political and artistic sharpness to this day.

The scion of a filmmaking family – his father Nikoloz and brother Giorgi were both directors – Eldar’s subversive satires pointedly attacked the strictures of the Soviet system but never resorted to crass political statements. He often explored the role of the artist in society, including in his two most celebrated features, An Unusual Exhibition (1968) and Blue Mountains (1983). Shengelaia is best-known in Georgia for his post-film career as a pro-independence politician who helped bring down the curtain on Soviet rule in the country: a remarkable second act in the life of an artist who provides an irreplaceable connection to the cultural and political legacies of the twentieth century.