The Way Home (Gza Shinisaken) is is billed as a triptych that identifies Rekhviashvili's poetic retrospection of Georgia's past. This is my favoruite as this film one of the best that manages to create an atmosphere in monologues, the paintings, sometimes with a few dialogues, relying in everything on the texture of the landscapes. The director is inspired by the works of Amir Kakabadze (son of the Georgian avant-garde painter David Kakabadze) and adapts the poems by Bella Akhmadulina (the major female poet of the cultural "Thaw" of the 1950s and 1960s) in the narrative.
The story is an allegorical film, a Rekshvialli's vision of Antimoz Iverieli/Anthim the Iberian, a Georgian theologian, scholar, calligrapher, philosopher and one of the greatest ecclesiastic figures of Wallachia. He spearheaded the printing press of the prince of Wallachia, and was Metropolitan of Bucharest in 1708-1715. He created the first public library in Bucharest. In this film his identity is used as an a voice of the voiceless for returning back home, the voice of those brutally abused by the Turks under the Ottoman Empire. Here the protagonist wanders meeting people, talks about importance of books, the youths and wanders as his main motive to return home at any cost is the foreground but the path taken is not an easy one.
Overall, This is a purely arthouse cinema, which is intended primarily for people who like to analyse and indulge in the atmosphere.
