One of the most significant figures in Georgian cinema history, outside of his homeland Eldar Shengelaia is nonetheless the most under-appreciated of Georgia’s great directors. Emerging in the post-war period alongside fellow innovators like Tengiz Abuladze and Otar Iosseliani, Shengelaia’s stark dramas and subversive satires earned him a place in the popular imagination. 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.