By Yun-hua Chen.
When we were writing the script, I was thinking that it might be very hard to finance this film. When we applied for some funds, they are more interested in other topics than topics about young people. In Georgia, young people are radically different from their parents who were born in the Soviet Union.”
Clearly signaling its allegiance to Virginia Woolf, A Room of My Own is a rare cinematic celebration of young women’s awakening in urban Georgia. Premiered at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, it is a joint effort between the director Ioseb ‘Soso’ Bliadze and the scriptwriter and actress Taki Mumladze to unravel the inherent and increasing conflicts between repressive and outdated patriarchal values and modern lifestyle of the younger generation.
24-year-old Tina, who originally comes from the countryside and attempts to find refuge from past traumas, moves into a flat in Tbilisi with the fiery and independent young woman Megi. Their supposedly short and temporary flat share evolves into an extended journey of self-exploration and awakening. Whereas the film opens with a slight resemblance to the clash between characters and cultures à la L’Auberge Espagnole (2002), it later on delves into parts of the darkest social reality and the prevalent misogynist atmosphere in the country.
Layered and nuanced, the film evolves with a growing rapproachement between two women who are at opposite poles on their existence as women in Georgia. Whereas Tina marries at a young age and has been conditioned to depend on men for her survival, Megi lives freely and enjoys femininity of her own definition. In a society that is too lenient towards men and stubbornly unforgiving when women make mistakes, they strive to seek the little in-between space where they are free to experiment with their bodies and rediscover their full potential.
Filmed under the constraints of the pandemic, A Room of My Own studies the domestic space inside their four walls. The performance stems from heart, and the mise-en-scene close to life. The camera feels so trusted by the actors that it gets very close to the two main actors without faltering. Made by a group of friends and with a lot of love, it is handmade with a strong collaborative spirit in the sincerest and most authentic manner.
It’s the second time you collaborate. How did you meet each other? How did you start to collaborate on Otar’s Death?
Ioseb ‘Soso’ Bliadze (ISB): We met at the casting of Otar’s Death. I was directing my debut feature and held a casting for one of the main roles. Taki came to the casting, and I chose her because I realized right away that she was a super talented young girl. Last year we premiered Otar’s Death in Karlovy Vary, and then we became close friends. With the pandemic going on, everything was closed. We decided to make a film together but without a budget, so I said to Taki that I wanted to make a film about a young woman. She said that if you were making a film about a woman, maybe it’s better if I co-write with you because I am a woman and know women’s problems in Georgia better. So, we started to write the script together. It was really great experience and a nice experiment. I think it was quite challenging for Taki to write the dialogues for her role. In the end, we made this film in 7 months with 26 shooting days.
How was the co-writing process?
Taki Mumladze (TM): It was very interesting. We were fighting a lot. I think it is very important because we could make decisions together. We talk with each other a lot. Sometimes at night, when we are not working, we would call each other and share our new ideas. We sometimes have different views, but we take turns to compromise.
ISB: In the end I think we make the best decisions together. As we wrote the script together, it was much easier to work with Taki on the set. It is a film made by a group of friends, so we all knew each other before. It was pure joy to work with all the actors in the film. I also played in the film myself. There was an actor who was supposed to play the role that I ended up playing. On the day of the shooting, he sent me the picture of his leg. He fell asleep, drunk next to a fireplace, and burnt his leg. So, I told him to stay at home. I had long hair at that time, but that character has short hair. I went straight to a barber shop and had my hair cut. I actually don’t like acting myself. Most of the time I like to be behind the camera and not in front of it.
How do you see the Georgian society as a conflicting point between these two lifestyles and ideas of life?
ISB: The film can be a bit ambitious. In Georgia we are in the crossroad, and we don’t know in which direction we would go. Now we have the chance to be a candidate of an EU member, but Moldova and Ukraine got it and we didn’t. We still have six months to change something to get this candidacy. We have to change our government. Georgia is a very patriarchal and conservative country, but we want to be the voice of the young Georgian people in this film. We are more open, more liberal. In Georgia, even now, there are protests of two conflicting groups, one more liberal and the other more conservative. It’s a big issue when it comes to the LGBT rights, women’s rights. In this film, we want to show this problem that we face every day in Georgia. It is very hard to be a woman in Georgia.
You mentioned the young Georgian people, and I really appreciate the fact that we get to see a film set in urban Georgia. I wonder why we don’t see more of them in film festival circuits…
ISB: This is interesting. When we were writing the script, I was thinking that it might be very hard to finance this film. When we applied for some funds, they are more interested in other topics than topics about young people. In Georgia, young people are radically different from their parents who were born in the Soviet Union. Young people were born when YouTube was there already. I think the new Georgia is depending on these young people. It’s very important to hear them and understand them.
In Georgia we are in the crossroad, and we don’t know in which direction we would go. Now we have the chance to be a candidate of an EU member, but Moldova and Ukraine got it and we didn’t. We still have six months to change something to get this candidacy. We have to change our government.”
Did you feel that there is an aspect of self-exoticization in Georgian filmmaking?
ISB: This problem is not only for Georgia but also for most Eastern European countries. It’s a temptation. It’s an exotic place, as the way Western people see Eastern people. In this film, we wanted to make a film without any self-exoticization. We wanted to make an authentic film about what is really happening in Georgia for the young generation.
TM: We really wanted to be uncompromising.
ISB: That’s why when Taki and Mariam have the naked scene in dramaturgy. It is really hard for actors to do this kind of scenes in a conservative society. This is one of the first naked and erotic scenes in Georgian cinema, and the first naked and erotic scene between two women.
TM: Soso told us that we could shoot this in a different way, and Mariam and I chose to do this without any compromises.
ISB: Taki and I both got the idea of doing this scene, but it’s not about filming naked people.
TM: We often see that women are sexualized in films, as sex objects, and that’s not what we wanted to do.
ISB: I didn’t want to have this male gaze on sexualized women. I was hoping to shoot everything without this masculine male gaze or objectifying these girls. I just wanted to show what is inside them.
TM: It was very raw.
ISB: Regarding this erotic scene, it was a decision that we made together. I didn’t say that we had to do it. We decided to do it together because this film is about freedom, becoming-independent for the girls and how difficult it is. I feel that the characters should be free, and we should also be free. We cannot predict what reactions it would trigger in Georgia.
Was it difficult to direct the scene with the two actresses especially when you were very self-conscious about not projecting male gaze?
ISB: We are really close friends. It was still hard, of course.
TM: We felt safe, and I really trusted Soso. I was not worried about it being over-beautified and sexualized. If it were a different director, maybe I would not have been able to do it.
Is the film going to be shown in Georgia?
ISB: Hopefully we can show the film in September 2022 in the film festival in Georgia. We want to release this film in Georgia, of course. First of all, the film is for Georgians. We want to show it not only in big cities but also in villages. The main character Tina came from a province. We want to show this film to those Tinas in the country and tell them that it is possible to raise your voice. It is hard, but freedom and independence are the most important.
TM: We are now fighting a lot for women’s rights and LGBT rights, and we have a lot of questions and things that we want to change.
ISB: This year we had a very weird situation in the Ministry of Culture. Salomé Jashi’s documentary Taming the Garden (2021), a film not really about politics but also actually about politics, was meant to be released in Georgian cinemas and was refused. So, we felt that this is the beginning of some censorship in Georgia, so let’s see. I hope that our film won’t be censored because we would like to show the film to the entire Georgia.
Was there a Tina whose story the script was based on?
ISB: It’s not based on a true story, but there are a lot of femicide cases. There was even a case right before we came here. An ex-husband killed his ex-wife. There were 27 femicide cases last year, and about 30 such cases every year. When these cases happened, most comments were blaming women, not only from men but also from women. “Maybe this woman did something bad and deserved to die”, this kind of comments. That’s very symptomatic.
TM: As a woman, you have to be a good woman, a good girl, a lady. There are some rules that women have to live with. A lot of women still live a life dictated by their men, like Tina coming from a conservative family with conservative parents and getting married.
ISB: She was first owned by her family and then owned by her husband, and she realized that it was a mistake. We wanted to show how the society reacts to this event. And how the society thinks that men are always right.
TM: A lot of women in Georgia don’t know how they can be independent. I have a lot of questions myself concerning the patriarchal society and the religion.
How did you choose this particular apartment as the main setting?
ISB: We have this location from the beginning. We already knew the location when we started writing the script.
TM: It was where I lived, actually.
ISB: The two actresses are really close friends and were living as roommates in the apartment. That’s how it started. When I was invited as a guest to their apartment, I felt that the apartment was too cinematic for me and said that we should make a film there. The production design is completely authentic because it’s their things. Now they don’t live in this apartment anymore. We feel a lot of nostalgia. As it was in this location that we wrote the script, I had the camera position and movement in mind already while writing the script.
How did you work on the roles that are very different from the actresses themselves but in their home setting?
ISB: Taki’s work for this film was exceptional. We shot the film for seven months, and throughout these seven months, Taki really became this character. Taki is a completely different person from the character. She was born in the capital of Georgia, in a good family.
TM: More privileged than Tina.
ISB: She had her haircut. It was her decision. She put some cream on her face to make her skin look worse. She put everything to make this role work. She did not sleep at night for a morning shoot of a hangover scene. We really tried to make everything look as authentic as possible. I hope we can see everything on screen.
As Tina is a character that is very different from your own milieu, how did you approach the character?
ISB: We see Tina as this conservative girl coming from the countryside, and Megi is more independent, liberal, and open-minded. Megi wants to leave the country, as most young people, mostly women, are fed up with everything and want to leave the country. This is very typical for Georgian youngsters. We are waiting for things to get better. When they lose hope, they all try to leave the country. I know many women facing problems in the country. Four years ago, I became the father of a girl. It kept me thinking since then what my daughter will see when she becomes a teenager and how she is going to live. I would like her to grow up into a free and independent woman. My daughter also played a minor role in the film. After I had a daughter, I became a feminist. My daughter was a trigger for me to read more about these issues and listen to women about their problems.
Do you think young people in the countryside would get a change to watch the film?
ISB: They will. That’s what I am planning. I want to show this film to every province of Georgia.
Are you going to explore these issues related to women in your next projects?
ISB: I am writing my next film right now. The project’s name is The Color of Her Skin. Hopefully we will shoot it next year. It is about a young man this time.
Yun-hua Chen is an independent film scholar. Her work has been published in Film International, Journal of Chinese Cinema, and Directory of World Cinema. Her monograph on mosaic space and mosaic auteurs was published by Neofelis Verlag, and her contribution to the edited volume titled Greek Film Noir is forthcoming from Edinburgh University Press.
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