Rezo ESADZE
Резо ЭСАДЗЕ
Rezo ESSADZE
USSR, 1975, 90mn 
Colour, fiction
Lyubov s pervogo vsglyada
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Любовь с первого взгляда

 

 Love at First Sight

 Le Coup de foudre

 
Directed by : Rezo ESADZE (Резо ЭСАДЗЕ)
Writing credits : Eduard TOPOL (Эдуард ТОПОЛЬ)
 
Cast
Ramaz CHKHIKVADZE (Рамаз ЧХИКВАДЗЕ)
Rezo ESADZE (Резо ЭСАДЗЕ)
Salome KANCHELI (Саломе КАНЧЕЛИ)
Kakhi KAVSADZE (Кахи КАВСАДЗЕ)
Vladimir NOSIK (Владимир НОСИК)
Vladimir NOVIKOV (Владимир НОВИКОВ)
Vakhtang PANCHULIDZE (Вахтанг ПАНЧУЛИДЗЕ)
Natalia YURIZDITSKAYA (Наталья ЮРИЗДИЦКАЯ)
 
Cinematography : Yuri VORONTSOV (Юрий ВОРОНЦОВ)
Production design : Georgi KROPACHEV (Георгий КРОПАЧЕВ)
Music : Yakov BOBOKHIDZE (Яков БОБОХИДЗЕ)
Sound : Gennadi KORKHOVOY (Геннадий КОРХОВОЙ), Zurab NADARYA (Зураб НАДАРАЯ), Guram SHUBLADZE (Гурам ШУБЛАДЗЕ)
Editing : Leda SEMENOVA (Ледa СЕМЕНОВА)
Companies : Lenfilm, GrouziaFilm
Release Date in Russia : 1988
 

Plot synopsis
A lyrical comedy about 16-year-old Azerbaijani and passionate football fan Murad. He falls in love with a Russian girl who is also two years older than him. The age difference and the boy’s family’s customs become an obstacle for the lovers and they have to overcome these difficulties. The director recreates the particular atmosphere of sunny Baku, where people of different nationalities lived, in the traditions of kind hearted Georgian comedy. Alas, this atmosphere remained on the screen only.
The script for this collaborative production between Lenfilm and Georgian Film was written by Eduard Topol whose name was already banned when the film was released – he emigrated in 1978. That's why another name is used in the credits. Topol said about the delay in the film's release «My film, in which there was no politics or social issues, only a love story, was banned because of one scene. In a large Baku courtyard, the main character's father is going to slaughter a sheep and his neighbours are giving him different advice on how to do it. One of them comes out onto a balcony in a worn-out army jacket and reads out instructions on the correct way to slaughter a sheep». This was an idea of the director Esadze and a Goskino official saw it as a vicious parody on the Soviet functionary and demanded the scene be cut. The director refused and the film was released only in 1988 on very few copies. In 1988 Esadze put together a new director's cut of the film.
Source : http://festival-spb.ru
 

commentaries
The Socialist Avant-Garde at the 33rd Moscow International Film Festival, Julie DRASKOCZY, kinokultura.com, 2011
 

Selected in the following festivals or events :
- Georgian films on kinoglaz.fr, kinoglaz.fr (France), 2023
- St-Petersburg International Film Festival, St Petersburg (Russia), 2012
- Moscow International Film Festival (MIFF), Moscow (Russia), 2011
- Moscow International Film Festival (MIFF), Moscow (Russia), 2009
- Moscow International Film Festival (MIFF), Moscow (Russia), 2008

Images