FNC 2013: Blind Dates

BLIND DATES

PRODUCTION TEAM:

Director: Levan Kogushvili
Exec. Producer: Keti Machavariani
Producer: Levan Koguashvili, Suliko Tsulikidzi, Olena Yershova
Screenplay: Levan Koguashvili, Boris Frumin
Cinematographer: Tato Kotetishvili
Editor: Nodar Nozadze
Sound: Paata Godziashvili
Prod. Designer: Kote Japaridze
Cast: Andro Shakhvaridze, Ia Sukhitashvili, Archil Kikodze, Kakhi Kavsadze
Production Co.: Kino Iberica, Millimeter Film
Gergia / 2013 / 98 min.

FNC OFFICIAL FILM SYNOPSIS :

"Sandro, a lonely 40-year-old bachelor, still lives with his folks, who fear he’ll never tie the knot. To find him a girlfriend, his buddy Iva signs him up for an online dating service. Sandro, though, shows zero interest in the women he meets on his blind dates. But just as everybody is about to give up hope, our hero falls head over heels for the mother of one of his high school students. Alas, her hotheaded husband will be out of jail soon and tends to settle his differences with his fists. Blind Dates, which had its world premiere at TIFF this year, is a tender look at a man’s fear of committing and facing the responsibilities a relationship entails. Despite its simple premise, the film compassionately explores the universal struggle to find true love. With a narrative that embraces la dolca vita, Levan Koguashvili’s second feature evokes the brilliant work of another Georgian filmmaker, Otar Iosseliani (Monday Morning and Farewell, Home Sweet Home)."

Blind Dates is presented in the International Competition category. It merited the Works in Progress Award at this year's The Karlovy Vary Film Festival. 

The film is a sensitive portrayal of an active searching for a lasting relationship where people resort to blind dating. It presents a common dilemma in the modern society: people failing to marry and to create a family in their twenties and thirties, and still searching for a right partner well into the forties and beyond. And even if they meet somebody they like, their dilemma is not resolved. That other, who seems to be so right, is entangled in their own problems of a failing marriage. The question arises, what is the right action under such circumstances: help to brake the dysfunctional marriage of the person one has met and with whom one feels so right, or step aside and allow the married couple to resolve their problems by themselves, to allow them to brake away on their own from their unsatisfying legal union. At the end, a question still lingers on: did the person step aside to give a loved one a space to brake from their marriage by themselves, or whether this act represented a need to withdraw into oneself and remain single and unattached, and stay away from any possible problems and complications.

One thing perplexing in this film: why do the two men bring their blind dates right away to a hotel room rather than to a more conversation friendly places like a cafe, a restaurant, or a bar. A hotel room has sexual connotations, as if the men were expecting an instant roll in the bed, yet there are no indications in the film that anything sexual takes place. The characters are shown simply sitting on a bed or on two separate beds while trying, quite unsuccessfully, to relate to each other.

The film has a great camera work with many unique and photographically compelling  shots and angles. This helps to create the mood and to project, as well as to understand, the characters disposition and emotive state.

Blind Dates was shown at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) in the Contemporary World Cinema category.