In Bloom (2013)

Loved this honest film, talking about 90s Georgia, another ex communist country that felt the urge to face its painful past by leaving cinematic testimony of the difficult times. Poverty, social unrest, every day struggle to make ends meet. I'm only surprised this films hasn't come out sooner, but in all honesty, I don't know much about Georgian cinema...so I might have missed earlier social dramas of the kind.

It's a spring/summer time in Tbilisi, the nature is in bloom, connected nicely to life and unrest of the blooming youth. And so much poverty and misery! Apparent in the run down buildings, school, houses, everywhere you go traces of decay follow. And we follow lives of two female leads, 14 year old girls Eka and Natia and their friends/family. Just normal teens during abnormal times...something the first world have never experienced at this scale and probably never will.

The themes of domestic violence that coincides with violence on bigger plan, having your school crush hand you a gun as a present, walking around with the gun, bringing it to school without teachers noticing or caring, being abducted, deflowered and forced to marry at the age of 14 just doesn't sound like your standard society.

But to contrast the violence and omnipresent misery: the world and all the light outside really made a huge impression on me, the beauty of nature against the ugliness of run down communist architecture and rude, nervous behavior of people...so much unrest, and such a still world outside the window,outside society. Seasons shift, governments change, wars end, but nature is always in bloom and relentlessly luscious in spring. As is youth...it should not be depraved of the pleasure of enjoying themselves while the turbulent but sweet youthful years last. Looks like Eka, Natia and others were not as lucky. They were forced to grow up prematurely, much earlier than they should have, than anybody should. Very good film, and important testimony. Nice job!

Fmovies: "In Bloom" is a first-rate coming-of-age drama from ex-Soviet Georgia, set in the capital, Tbilisi, in 1992, when the newly independent country is on the verge of coming apart. Russian-backed insurgents are fighting on the coast, bread is rationed, lawless customs from the bad old days —bride kidnapping, settling romantic rivalries with knives—are making a strong comeback.

The two leads, both first-time actresses, are amazing. Natia, already a beauty at 14, is being courted by two older guys—an unsavory tough, Kote, and the more appealing Lado. Before Lado goes off on an inopportune trip to Moscow, he gives Natia a revolver to protect herself. The stage seems to be set for an operatic climax until hard-headed Eka takes matters in hand.

The establishing scenes of squabbling families and menacing streets are quite well done, but it's the strong plot and the two lead actresses' sensitive performances that save this film from art-house miserabilism. Surprisingly, the real highlights are both musical numbers—Natia, Eka and their friends gather around the piano to sing a world-weary lovesong (something about "life is hard, and it will crush your dreams"), and Eka performs an amazing solo dance at a traditional wedding party. "In Bloom" is one of the better unheralded foreign films we've seen on Netflix lately.

The new Georgina film ''In bloom'' makes Deep impression onlooker, great performance by Lika Babluani and Mariam Bokeria, - a classic story about the transition to adulthood and its attendant difficulties, where the great camera work and acting of spaces were completely wiped out in the story, rather odd mounting solutions, and, most importantly, the only female view of the world.

The film is full of tragic scenes, typical of the Georgina, ''in bloom'' - talking about everyday life, it is often very cruel to us, on the abnormal situation in the families of the strong friendship and mutual assistance, first love ... yes, of love, of course, he said. And again about his childhood.

I think This film is actually In Top 5 made In Georgia During last 20-25 Year.

In Bloom fmovies. After the fall of USSR, Georgia finds itself in anarchy, degeneration, decay and depression. All of this is reflected in behavior of its people. The movie paints a bleak landscape at every level: widespread crime, dog-eat-dog atmosphere expressed in bread lines (survival of the fittest); domestic violence - resulted from economic woes + accepted culture of excessive male dominance and drinking; decline in schools (teacher judges and makes fun of students in front of the class, making unpatriotic comments about a student's father fighting in a war with Abghazia). Atmosphere of hopelessness prevails in Georgia except for beautiful, little 14 yo Eka with very sad face. She is the light in this land of darkness, representing Georgian hope and possibly a better future some day. She is not afraid to stand up to societal wrongs, question, support and protect her friends, speak out and shame others for their indifference toward their own society i.e. their country. Eka is the hidden goodness of Georgia, characterized by her mesmerizing dance at the wedding. She is a "uniter, not a divider", able to lift spirits and make her countrymen smile, cry and feel some kind of pride and emotion for their lost and forgotten Georgian-ness.

I don't believe I've ever seen a Georgian film before watching In Bloom, but it was a great place to start and I'll certainly be looking more into Georgian cinema.

Like many coming of age stories the film focuses on two young teenage girls, but unlike most typical American or European films, the background for this film involves a country that has recently overcome one violent coup and is in the middle of a civil war. Screenwriter and co-director Nana Ekvtimishvili handles these details with lovely subtlety never making them feel heavy handed or overt. The camera- work for the film is also a knock out. The cinematographer, Oleg Mutu, is the same one responsible for the Romanian masterpiece 4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days, and he flawlessly employs the steady hand and long takes he used in that movie to great effect here. There is a beautiful 5 minute scene that is a one shot take of one of the girls dancing and it is the perfect meld of technical camera-work and physical performance.

I would be remiss of course not to mention the acting of the two lead girls who are simply fantastic. And while they are both strong actresses, it's Lika Babluani, in a much quieter performance, who is devastating. She has a face made for cinema and she can carry those long takes and fill them up with her presence without feeling laboured or strained.

Grzeli nateli dgeebi is a film from Georgia shown as In Bloom (2013) in the U.S. It was directed by Nana Ekvtimishvili and Simon Groß. Nana Ekvtimishvili is also the writer.

The film takes place in the Georgian city of Tbilisi in 1992, shortly after the disintegration of the U.S.S.R. Although life is not easy in Tbilisi--people are always standing in line waiting to buy bread--the movie doesn't depict widespread misery. Young people are attending school, and there's enough food on the table for everyone we meet. (I assume this is an accurate portrayal of the situation at the time, although I have no way of confirming this.)

The film is, at its core, a coming-of-age movie about two adolescent girls--Eka (Lika Babluani) and Natia (Mariam Bokeria). They are best friends and manage to protect each other, as much as possible, from male aggression and bullying.

Things don't work out very well, but I can't say more without spoiling the movie. I can say this much--there's a wedding in the film, and one of the friends gives the bride the gift of an incredible folkloric dance. It's very different--at least for me--from what I expected an Eastern European folk dance to look like, but it's truly beautiful.

We saw this movie at the excellent Dryden Theatre in Rochester, NY. However, it will work well on DVD. I noticed that most of the IMDb reviews of In Bloom came from Eastern European viewers. I don't know whether that's because the movie has had limited release in the U.S., or because U.S. viewers just haven't been motivated to review it.

The good news is that, as I write this review, its IMDb rating is a very high 8.1. So, those who have seen In Bloom really, really like it. That supports my suggestion to seek it out and view it if at all possible.