Iliko, Ilarion, Grandmother, and Me

Landscape as mise-en-scène was to become the distinctive trademark of Abuladze’s art in more formal, allegorical films like Molba or The Wishing Tree. Here it lends itself to a lyric pastorale full of the grotesque comedy of village life, which seems to thrive on curses and prayers, frankness and straight-faced humor. Abuladze accompanies his characters through the seasons, through war and then peace. The “Me” in the title is Zuriko, an orphan who lives with his grandmother Olga. Abuladze’s humanist depiction of a small community and his central character’s coming of age is reminiscent of Satyajit Ray’s The World of Apu and of Federico Fellini’s films.