Respond to these rapid questions in our My Country My Parents quiz and we will tell you which My Country My Parents character you are. Play it now.
When it comes to conveying truths that are difficult to articulate in everyday life, cinema has always been a great medium. When our feelings are placed in the context of our surrounding reality, which is frequently taken for granted, our feelings become less perplexing. In Georgian society, it is not uncommon for generations of family members to live together in the same space, continuing to act in their roles as parents and children long after they have outgrown their childhood roles. Women must prove themselves on a daily basis, whereas men can get away with almost anything, with the exception of physical abuse and excessive drinking. It is the woman’s responsibility, above all, to ensure the happiness of her family by exhibiting a peaceful and self-sacrificing nature in her daily life. Ia Shugliashvili, the 52-year-old heroine of Nana Ekvtimishvili and Simon Gross’ “My Happy Family,” can’t wait to get away from her abusive husband and their children.
Even before the film’s opening credits begin to fade in, Manana has been quietly entertaining the idea of leaving the country. The first scene follows her as she takes a tour of the apartment where she will eventually live alone, much to the disbelief of her parents and other relatives in the house. Manana is frequently questioned about whether or not she has been struck by her husband, Soso (Merab Ninidze). Surely, she must have been injured for such drastic measures to have been taken against her. “I’m not going to explain it to anyone,” Manana insists, while assuring them that she was not a victim of violence in the process. Perhaps she truly believes this, given the nature of the abuse she has endured, which has been far more insidious than she has been exposed to.
Despite the fact that her disapproving family members claim that their actions are motivated by love, they are actually motivated by a deep-seated desire for power. Manana is expected to suppress her own desires even while she is being feted on her birthday, which is a difficult task. Soso is so determined to maintain the strained image of his family’s contentment that he invites a large number of guests to his wife’s birthday party, despite the fact that she had requested a quiet evening at home. As soon as the throngs of people begin to pour through the door, Manana puts on a cheerful front until they are no longer visible, allowing her face to collapse from exhaustion.
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She eventually comes to the conclusion that this endless night is the final straw, though it is not until she returns to her day job as a teacher that she is able to summon the courage to act on her desires. A 17-year-old student, Tatia (Lika Babluani), is asked why she has missed so many classes, and the young woman responds by telling her that she is divorcing her husband, which she finds amusing. Tatia warns Manana that as soon as she makes up her mind about what she wants in life, she must commit to that decision. They didn’t fight because they wanted different things; it was simply a matter of preference. Otherwise, she will be a prisoner for the rest of her life. It’s a sublime example of a student providing her teacher with a much-needed lesson that never comes across as patronizing, thanks in part to the inspired casting of Babluani.
My Country My Parents Quiz
She made her dazzling screen debut in Ekvtimishvili and Gross’ first collaborative effort, 2013’s “In Bloom,” a film that serves as a fitting companion piece to “My Happy Mother.” She has since appeared in a number of other films, including “My Happy Mother.” “In Bloom,” which was released in 1992, a year after Georgia gained independence from the Soviet Union, was about Eka (Babluani), a teenager who is distressed by the man who is aggressively pursuing her close friend, Natia (Babluani) (Marian Bokeria). Immediately after he and his friends force Natia into a car against her will and drive away with her, Eka begins hurling expletives at a crowd of indifferent witnesses until an elderly gentleman slaps her in the face. Following this, Eka performs a mesmerizing dance at Natia’s wedding, affirming that she will remain a source of strength in her friend’s life despite her concerns. This is one of the most exhilarating sequences I’ve ever witnessed, with her face freshly bruised and her movement loosen by alcohol.
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“In Bloom” quickly rose to the top of my list of favorite films, and “My Happy Family” is every bit as enthralling and accomplished as its predecessor. In both films, a cinematographer who previously collaborated with Romanian filmmaker Cristian Mungiu on his similarly claustrophobic portraits of oppressive societal restrictions was hired to shoot the footage. Ekvtimishvili and Gross, like Mungiu, prefer to stage scenes in meticulously choreographed extended takes that fully immerse us in the character’s often-congested surroundings rather than in a single take. Whereas director of photography Oleg Mutu (“4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days”) instilled a sense of impending danger into “In Bloom,” Tudor Vladimir Panduru (“Graduation”) uses his equally accomplished cinematography to accentuate the poignancy of various moments in “My Happy Family.”
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Take, for example, the scene in which Manana enters a family’s apartment and pretends to be a gas meter reader. The shot begins over her shoulder as her gaze is drawn to the boy who answers the door; however, it is only gradually revealed that the boy is the protagonist of the film. We’re now looking over Manana’s shoulder at the end of the scene, whose carefully modulated expression has now become a focal point of the scene’s framing. Almost every scene is anchored by Shugliashvili’s face, which unceasingly fills in the gaps left by Ekvtimishvili’s deftly nuanced dialogue in order to create a more complete picture. As the implications of Manana’s newfound knowledge begin to sink in during a class reunion, the camera slowly pans in toward Shugliashvili, who appears to be losing her cool under the pressure of her newfound knowledge. When Manana reluctantly agrees to her friends’ request that she serenade them, her pent-up grief bursts forth in the form of melodic poetry, bringing the house down in a manner similar to Eka’s dancing.
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One of the universal truths explored by the films “In Bloom” and “My Happy Family” is the extent to which growing up in an overly close-knit family can hinder one’s own personal development. Upon her release from her absentee husband, adult children, and overbearing parents, Manana finds herself intoxicated by the tranquility of her new apartment’s emptiness. It is only after the camera has travelled tirelessly through the confines of Manana’s familial entrapment that the camera is allowed to linger for several glorious beats on the heroine sitting next to her balcony, eating a slice of cake as Mozart’s famous piano sonata plays in the background to the sound of gentle breezes blowing through a nearby tree. Even this oasis, however, is not completely free of patriarchal oversight, thanks to Manana’s brother, who hired a couple of local thugs to guard his sister from a distance—not to keep her safe, but to keep her in line.
Many of the year’s best films feature female protagonists who are determined to live their lives on their own terms, and “My Happy Family” is right up there with them in terms of quality of storytelling. It is important that it does not get lost in the awards season frenzy, and when viewers stream it on Netflix, I recommend that they pair it with “In Bloom,” which is also available for rental on DVD at the same time. They come together to form one of the most impressive double bills in recent memory.
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