Cinema Releases - Blackbird Blackbird Blackberry
Etero, a 48-year-old woman living in a small village in Georgia, never wanted a husband. She cherishes her freedom as much as her cakes. But her choice to live alone is the cause of much gossip among her fellow villagers. Unexpectedly, she finds herself passionately falling for a man, and is suddenly faced with the decision to pursue a relationship or continue a life of independence. Etero must grapple with her feelings and decide how to find her own path to happiness.
Eka Chavleishvili was awarded Best Actress in both the Belfast and Dublin Film Festivals.
BBFC cert 15
Release supported by
Picturehouse Film Club: Tuesday 30th April, Picturehouses everywhere
Week commencing 3 May
ICA Cinema | The Mall | London SW1Y 1BN | 020 7930 3647 | all week |
Ciné Lumière | 17 Queensberry Place | London SW7 2DT | 020 7871 3515 | all week |
ArtHouse Crouch End | 159 Tottenham Lane | London N8 9BT | 020 8245 3099 | all week |
Picturehouse Central | 15 Great Windmill St | London W1D 7DH | 0207 326 2649 | all week |
Curzon Bloomsbury | Brunswick Centre | London WC1N 1AW | 08719 642838 | all week |
Hackney Picturehouse | 270 Mare St | London E8 1HE | 0207 326 2649 | all week |
Fulham Road Picturehouse | 142 Fulham Rd | London SW10 9QR | 0207 326 2649 | all week |
Crouch End Picturehouse | 165 Tottenham Lane | London N8 9BY | 0207 326 2649 | all week |
Garden Cinema | 39-41 Parker St | London WC2B 5PQ | 020 3369 5000 | all week |
Curzon Wimbledon | 23 The Broadway | London SW19 1RE | 08719 642838 | all week |
Arts Picturehouse | 38-39 St Andrew's St | Cambridge CB2 3AR | 0207 326 2649 | all week |
Chapter | Market Rd | Cardiff CF5 1QE | 029 2031 1050 | all week |
GFT | 12 Rose St | Glasgow G3 6RB | 0141 332 6535 | all week |
Cameo | 38 Home St | Edinburgh EH3 9LZ | 0207 326 2649 | all week |
Depot | Pinwell Road | Lewes BN7 2JS | 01273 525354 | all week |
Tyneside | 10 Pilgrim St | Newcastle NE1 6QG | 0191 227 5500 | all week |
HOME | 2 Tony Wilson Place | Manchester M15 4FN | 0161 200 1500 | all week |
Watershed | 1 Canon's Road | Bristol BS1 5TX | 0117 927 5100 | all week |
Phoenix | 4 Midland Street | Leicester LE1 1TG | 0116 242 2800 | all week |
Showroom Cinema | 15 Paternoster Row | Sheffield S1 2BX | 0114 275 6511 | all week |
Newlyn Filmhouse | 23-31 The Coombe | Newlyn, Penzance TR18 5HS | 01736 332222 | all week |
Queens Film Theatre | 20 University Square | Belfast BT7 1PA | 028 9097 1097 | all week |
IFI | 6 Eustace St | Dublin 2 D02 PD85 | 01 679 5744 | all week |
Week commencing 10 May
Quad | Market Place | Derby DE1 3AS | 01332 290606 | shows tbc |
Week commencing 17 May
Broadway Cinema | 14 - 18 Broad St. | Nottingham NG1 3AL | 0115 952 6611 | all week |
Eden Court | Bishops Rd | Inverness IV3 5SA | 01463 234234 | |
Ultimate Picture Palace | Jeune St | Oxford OX4 1BN | 01865 245288 | |
Towner | Devonshire Park | Eastbourne BN21 4JJ | 01323 434670 | |
Picture House | Hebden Bridge | |||
Exeter Phoenix | Gandy St | Exeter EX4 3LS | 01392 667080 | |
Cinema | Cromarty | |||
Week commencing 24 May
Warwick Arts Centre | University of Warwick | Coventry CV4 7AL | 024 7649 6000 | |
Hyde Park Picture House | 73 Brudenell Rd | Leeds LS6 1JD | 0113 275 2045 | 24-26 May |
Firstsite | Colchester | |||
Week commencing 31 May
Past screenings:BFI London Film Festival - 10 & 11 Oct Republic of Ireland premiere - Dublin Film Festival Feb 26 Keswick Film Festival - Alhambra Cinema, 2 Mar.
Borderlines Film Festival - Courtyard Hereford, 2 & 7 Mar Malvern Theatres, 2 Mar Regal Tenbury Wells, 4 Mar Richard Booth Bookshop 8 Mar Assembly Rooms, Ludlow 12 Mar
Elene Naveriani is a Georgian director now living in Switzerland. They graduated from the Tbilisi State Academy of Art in monumental painting in 2003. After a Master in Critical Curatorial Cybermedia at the HEAD – Geneva (Geneva School of Art and Design), they started their studies in Cinema. Their graduation short film GOSPEL OF ANASYRMA (2014) was acclaimed for their distinctive signature and stance.
Elene’s work is one that makes invisible stories visible, that makes unheard voices heard and creates a space for marginalised lives. Elene practises a cinema of resistance.
Their first feature I AM TRULY A DROP OF SUN ON EARTH (2017) premiered in Rotterdam and was awarded numerous prizes (Seoul, Xining, Valladolid, Porto). Elene also directed two further short films that received a lot of acclaim. RED ANTS BITE (2019) was nominated for best Swiss short film award and LANTSKY PAPA’S STOLEN OX (2018), a short documentary, premiered in Entrevues Belfort and won the Grand Prix Best Short. The film was also awarded in Tbilisi and Documenta Madrid.
In 2021, their second feature film WET SAND made its World Premiere in Locarno in August 2021 and earned the Best Actor’s Prize. Elene is currently developing two further feature projects.
WET SAND, fiction, 115min (2021). 74° Locarno Film Festival – Pardo for Best Actor (Concorso Cineasti del presente), Viennale – Vienna International Film Festival 2021, Santiago de Compostela, Cineuropa 35, 28th Sarajevo Film Festival, San Francisco, 65th San Francisco International Film Festival, Solothurner Filmtage – Best Feature Film
RED ANTS BITE, fiction, 22min (2019). 23. International Kurzfilmtage Winterthur, 49th International Film Festival Rotterdam, Saguenay 24ème REGARD – Festival international du court-métrage, 26th Palm Springs International ShortFest, 34th Leeds International Film Festival, 18th Bogota Short Film Festival, Encounters Bristol – Special Mention 2020, Brest European short film festival – Departmental Council Award 2020
LANTSKY PAPA’S STOLEN OX, documentary, 29min (2018). Entrevues Belfort, Grand Prix Best Short, Tbilisi International Film Festival – Best Documentary, Documenta Madrid – Jury Mention in International Short Film Competition
I AM TRULY A DROP OF SUN ON EARTH, fiction, 61min (2017). 52. Solothurner Filmtage, 46th InternationalFilm F estival Rotterdam, 41a Mostra Internacional del Cinema de Sao Paulo, Tbilisi International Film Festival, Valladolid / Seminci, Best Photography Award, 32e Entrevues Belfort, Special Mention Prix du Long métrage Janine Bazin, 30ème Festival Premiers Plans d’Angers
GOSPEL OF ANASYRMA, fiction, 29min (2014). Festival Tous Ecrans – Festival international du film de Genève, 27e Festival Premiers Plans d'Angers, Kyiv International Short Film Festival KISFF 2015, Lisbon, 12th International Independent Film Festival Lisboa, Tel Aviv, 17th International Student Film Festival, Prix du public – XPosed Berlin
CAST | |
ETERO | Eka Chavleishvili |
MURMAN | Temiko Chichinadze |
NENO | Pikria Nikabadze |
TSISANA | Anka Khurtsidze |
LONDA | Tamar Mdinaradze |
NATELA | Lia Abuladze |
CREW | |
DIRECTOR | Elene Naveriani |
BASED ON THE BOOK BY | Tamta Melashvili |
ADAPTED FOR SCREEN BY | Nikoloz Mdivani |
Elene Naveriani | |
PRODUCTION COMPANIES | Alva Film (CH) |
Takes Film (GE) | |
PRODUCERS | Thomas Reichlin |
Britta Rindelaub | |
Ketie Daniela | |
ASSOCIATE PRODUCER | Bettina Brokemper |
(HEIMATFILM) | |
CINEMATOGRAPHER | Agnesh Pakozdi |
EDITOR | Aurora Franco Vögeli |
PRODUCTION SOUND MIXER | Marc Von Stürler |
SOUND DESIGNER AND MIXER | Philippe Ciompi |
PRODUCTION DESIGN | Teo Baramidze |
COSTUME DESIGNER | Nino Injia |
HAIR & MAKEUP | Julia Nietlispach |
SWITZERLAND / GEORGIA | |
(FLAT 1:85) (5.1, AND STEREO) | |
2023 - 110 MIN - (In Georgian) | |
100% Rotten Tomatoes!!!
"A stoically independent Georgian woman in her late 40s experiences a gentle existential awakening during an affair with a local deliveryman in Elene Naveriani's offbeat, low-key drama. Naveriani has given us a most unusual feminist heroine, one experiencing the mischievous, rarely seen triumph of a woman coming into bloom just as those around her are beginning to fade: the last and sweetest blackberry on the bush."
Jessica Kiang, Variety
★★★★
'With deadpan charm, Elene Naveriani maintains a slow-burning vibe that ripples with underlying humour and tensions. The characters are wonderfully real, while the film has a colourful, sardonic Kaurismäki-like quality that's thoroughly winning. And the underlying message is hugely empowering.'
'Lovely'
Rich Cline, Shadows On The Wall
"The promise of romance changes everything in Blackbird Blackbird Blackberry, the third feature from Elena Naveriani which paints an endearing, bittersweet portrait of an independent woman at the mercy of society’s entrenched expectations. An irresistible central performance from Eka Chavleishvili adds to the appeal of a film that should readily connect with audiences who embraced titles like Sebastian Lelio’s Gloria (2013)."
Allan Hunter, Screen International
The title of Elene Naveriani's third feature makes poetry of natural imagery. If Ingmar Bergman hadn't got there first, it could just as easily have been called 'Autumn Sonata, focusing as it does on a solitary woman seemingly in the autumn of her life...who undergoes an existential awakening.
Naveriani's use of bold colours and deep shadow also recalls late-period Aki Kaurismäki, whose autumnally titled Fallen Leaves like Blackbird Blackbird Blackberry, premiered at Cannes this year. Both films are about a solitary shop worker who embarks on a relationship in middle age; both films share a certain sense of timelessness, with few signifiers of modernity; both situate their romances in a gentle but unmistakable social critique. In Blackbird Blackbird Blackberry, it's not so much capitalism under the microscope as gender conventions. All Etero's friends have settled down and procreated with their husbands.
Arjun Sajip, Sight & Sound
"The deliciously wry, gently unfurling tale of a middle-aged Georgian woman who rejects small-town conformity and experiments with love after a near-death experience."
Carmen Gray, The Film Verdict
"A rich character study of a strong willed woman who relishes her independence...
★★★★
Simple in its mysteriousness, Naveriani crafts an irresistable portrait of a lady.
Georgian filmmaker Elene Naveriani solidifies her gravitational pull towards examining rural social misfits with her elegant sophomore film."
Nicholas Bell, ION Cinema
"A striking ode to female independence...
In the past decade or so, the country of Georgia has produced many raw and powerful films from women directors examining the country's modern women as they seek their newfound independence. Elene Naveriani's romantic drama is a striking new entry to this film movement, anchored by a fierce and sensual performance from star Eka Chavleishvili."
Marya E. Gates, The Playlist
"In Eto Elene Naveriani has created one of the most memorable protagonists of the year, Chavleishvili’s performance among the best of the lot."
Rory O'Connor, The Film Stage
"A work of incredible depth, intelligent and intuitive, which can teach us a thing or two about finding pleasure in life, even if we think that ship has sailed.
A film as charming as its title suggests. At times contemplative and always exploratory...tells a bittersweet love story in order to present a much sweeter one of self-love."
Savina Petkova, Cineuropa
"Chavleishvili plays the commanding Etero with a dry wit, a piercing gaze, and an uncommon sensitivity.
The film’s final shot, a knockout scene happy to exist in the liminal space between dashed dreams and attained longings of a new lease on life and the unwanted ending of a chapter, is a well-spring of emotional ambiguity used as a vehicle for an incredible sense of awe by Chavleishvili. Like its protagonist, the spellbinding sensibilities of “Blackbird Blackbird Blackberry” are a treat to behold."
Robert Daniels, RogerEbert.com
'Wry, sensous and surprisingly subversive, this gentle midde-aged romance ...
A sharp, no-shit-taken performance from Eka Chavleishvili shows up her fierce hunger for freedom and gorgeous woodland trysts, rather than the wifely drudgery of village life.'
Kate Stables, Total Film
'...In a harsh and judgemental world...this is a story that exceeds its love story status.
A counterpoint to the ordinary lives on show, the film’s production design also pops – bright greens and reds insist that life doesn’t have to be bleak. There’s optimism on screen, whether on the walls or in the mind of Etero, who is a quiet, radical force that flies in the face of convention. It doesn’t matter what age you are, Naveriani suggests. Pleasure and desire can strike us at any time.’
James Mottram, Aesthetica magazine
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Filmed interview with Elene Naveriani on Mubi Spotify
Interview with Elene Naveriani in Journey into Cinema
The Arts House BBC Interview with director Elene Naveriani