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"Brigands: Chapter VII"
1996
Directed by Otar Iosseliani
This crazy, satirical epic humorously portrays several
eras in European history. Though the costumes and regimes change, the film
suggests, the human motives of lust and greed remain the same. Jumping back
and forth in time, the film condemns its characters to an eternity of irony.
In one section, a medieval king named Vano, who has a penchant for exotic
torture techniques, executes his wife for being unfaithful. Seamlessly the
film flashes forward to the early 1930s, with another Vano, played by the
same actor, portraying a low-down thief who suddenly seizes power. Intercut
with all of this is the story of a contemporary Vano, a hapless drunk who
wanders across the underworlds of Europe. This extraordinary film expresses
rage against the dark side of human nature that keeps despots in power,
despite the upheavals of history, but it does so with a delightfully comic
edge. (FYI, there are no chapters 1-6). Georgian and French with English
subtitles.
129 minutes. |
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