User reviews

IAVNANA is a bizarre Georgian film about a girl called Keto stolen from her home and her subsequent reintroduction to her parents later in life with no memory of anything before the kidnapping. The story sounds simple enough, but the film's tone is difficult to decipher, and it consistently straddles a line between Parajanovian tableaux vivants and ABC movie-of-the-week, two styles which in any normal universe don't come anywhere near each other. The girl's existence with her biological parents is idyllic to the point of being other-worldly, and I honestly can't tell whether it is meant to be interpreted literally or ironically. It certainly provides a remarkable contrast to what follows the girl's kidnapping -- the film shifts its focus to her mother, who goes rather insane afterwards. There's a scene here involving witches that I found particularly creepy. I was with the film the entire time, in large part thanks to the gorgeous and rather impressionistic cinematography by Giorgi Beridze (who also shot Nana Djordjadze's ACHEF IN LOVE), but ultimately I found it went by far too quickly. A great deal of time is spent on Keto's early life with her parents, but after she is kidnapped I feel the film is a bit rushed. There are numerous scenes that should carry some substantial dramatic weight but aren't allowed enough breathing room to work to their full effect. Still, it was an intriguing and sometimes fascinating presentation for its stylistic peculiarities, and the precise nature of the daughter's isolation (she is raised in an entirely different culture and speaks a different language) makes the story unique, at least to this American viewer.

This Georgian drama seeks to renew and reinforce a sense of cultural and national identity as it examines a tragic event in the idyllic life of an aristocratic Georgian family. Much of the film focuses upon their happy and peaceful life of this family comprised of a young couple and their baby daughter Keto. Their life changes when two drifters come in. The two men (who seem to be Muslims from the Azerbaijan republic) are met with hospitality. They repay it by kidnapping baby Keto. I first saw this movie as a kid, in '96. or '97. on Christmas Eve and was delighted with it. I've been looking for it for years - the problem was that i didn't know movie name nor in Serbian nor in English. After a lot of thinking and guessing i found it's name on this site, but this was only the first part of my search. It was nearly impossible to find a DVD, only DVD rips with suspicious video quality were available on internet. At last, I managed to find DVD and to translate it to Serbian. For those who are regularly watch Hollywood movies, this one probably wouldn't be interesting, but I'd highly recommend it for everyone else.

It's hard to say, what Nana Janelidze has more of - talent or humanity. I have never seen movies of that kind before. It has Claude Monet in each frame. The film is short - 1h:14 min, but given that every frame is scrupulously composed, it's quite a lot. Movie's symbolism becomes understandable if you take into account the year of its production. It's incredible, but this extremely sophisticated master of Georgian cinema has only four movies, and nothing after 1994, except for 1998 documentary "Georgia in a Water Drop". Instead Nana has been teaching directing at Tbilisi University. Who should be making movies, if not Nana Janelidze, I have no idea.

delicate subject. and splendid manner to present it. a special beauty as soul of a profound drama. a poem but little more than images, dialogs, music, embroidery of emotions makes it pure gem.it is deep Georgian because its message has universal echo. it is a beautiful film and its secret ingredient is extraordinary science of measure. it is a drama but, in fact, it is a confession. the definition art film can be only a beginning. because more than brilliant art the portrait of mother and her daughter are symbols of lost paradise who rediscover the experiences of viewer. a film who must see it. not for an obvious motif. only for its small virtue to be impressive travel in yours personal universe. because, it is one of than kind of movies who remains the old story of a wise teacher who has the role of mirror for the hopes, fights, miracles who defines each member of public.

like many contemporary Georgian films, "Iavnana" is the root of a state. special, delicate, strange. the story is simple and dramatic. the images are profound beautiful. the broken peace of a rich family, the effort to discover the girl, the meet and the lost past, the song. as frame of an old portrait of a world who seems so far but, in fact, scene by scene, you discover it as part of yourself. a film about family. about motherhood. about new beginning. about illusion. a film like a gem. or a butterfly. because its delicacy and magic and drama and emotions and tension are unique. because it is a trip in a childhood who, maybe, did not exist but who gives the measure of small gestures and right words. the final state. out of the rules of melodrama. this is it. this is all.