Georgian cinema and Tengiz Abuladze

Georgia has a long history and it has always been fighting for its independence. In 1896 when the Czar System still was in force, the movies shown by Lumiere Brothers were readly welcomed. After the October Revolution of 1917 and the foundation of the Soviet Union the conditions in the country changed. Georgia became one of the Soviet Republics so that the changes incurred at that time shaped the art milieu. The Soviet Government saw the cinema as the best propaganda instrument and introduced some restrictions. When Stalin came to power in 1925 these restrictions became even stricter and continued until his death in 1953.After the Second World War with the increase of economic and social problems a regression was seen in the movies. The Soviet and Georgian cinema was also affected by this negative development. In 1955, with the relief experienced in post-Stalin era, a revival was observed in the Georgian cinema. The first initiatives were grasped by the graduates of the Moscow Cinema Institute (VGIK), Tengiz Abuladze and Rezo Chkheidze. With the film ?Magdanas Lurca? produced in 1955, they started the golden age of the Georgian and Soviet cinema. With the introduction of a new Soviet government the cinema was used once again as a propaganda instrument so that oppression was continued at the point where it had beenleft off. However, the Georgian cinema managed to stay unscathed by such practices. It added new films produced under the influence of realism to the comedies it produced in the past. In the later periods they used metaphores to a great extent. At that time it was the director Tengiz Abuladze who took an active role in the Georgian cinema. He made use of all kinds of art branches and especially of literature. Whereas the influence of realism was obvious in his early films, it was mostly metaphores he used in the later periods. With the constrasts he used extensively in his films he tried to reflect his approach to life and he always attracted great attention.