Runtime: 1h 1m (61 minutes)
Original Title: Chemi Bebia
Soviet Union, 1929
Director: Kote Mikaberidze
Cast: Aleksandre Takaishvili, Bella Chernova, Evgeniy Ovanov, Akaki Khorava
Silent film with English intertitles
Age rating: 9+
Tickets available at Cinemateket ODEON Kino
This film has nothing to do with grandmothers. In this context, Grandmother refers to a protector or benefactor—someone who, perhaps for a bribe, helps out when you've lost your job or run into trouble with bureaucracy. And it’s all too easy to find oneself at odds with bureaucracy in the wild, surreal, Kafkaesque world created by Georgian-Soviet director Kote Mikaberidze in 1929.
Our somewhat lazy protagonist is fired and desperately tries to get his job back to avoid his wife’s wrath. He is sent from office to office, through endless doors, up and down stairs in an absurd bureaucratic labyrinth. The pace is frantic, the editing unexpected, featuring animated sequences, distorted close-ups, double exposures, and other visual effects.
Chemi Bebia was banned for over 50 years, and even today, few have had the chance to see it.