March 12, 2014
Jlortlanò (Obstruer
E ducation
special edition
Page II
Vancouver
East County
Alberta
North Portland
Mariam Bokeria (left) and Lika Babluani star in “In Bloom. ”
„
photo by
B ig W orld P ictures
Navigating Character, Tradition and Fate
‘In Bloom’ has teenage
friends dealing with world
on their own terms
by
D arleen O rtega
The Russian playwright Anton Chekhov is often quoted
as saying that if you introduce a gun (literally or figuratively)
in the first act of a play, it had better go off by the last act, or
it serves no dramatic purpose. Many of the reviews of "In
Bloom
a Georgian film that was one of my favorites at this
year's Portland International Film Festival and is currently
playing at Cinema 21 in Portland - mention Chekhov's
principle, intrigued by the question of whether the film
violates or complies with it.
To my mind, this observant and insightful depiction of the
too-early coming-of-age for two 14-year-old girls embodies
the principle in a way that captures the complexity of the
experience of women and girls, specifically in Tbilisi, Georgia
in 1992, right after the collapse of the Soviet Union, but also
more generally.
The two girls at the center of this’story, Eka and Natia,
display a familiar adolescent determination to deal only on
their own terms with the external world of fighting parents,
teachers who shame students, boys and breadlines. They are
good girls, but not necessarily compliant ones, except when
it suits them, and they act as though the adults in their world
should feel lucky for what they get.
But the world around them does contain violently fighting
parents, and teachers who shame students quite mercilessly,
and boys who will harass a girl walking home alone after
school, and breadlines where adults will literally yell obsceni
ties and fight a child for a place at the front. It is a world that
is violent enough that when a boy who is sweet on Natia
gives her a gun to protect herself, she barely registers a
reaction. I watched this film in a continual state o f anxiety -
- but Natia displays no such concern. She is acclimated to a
level of hazard and threat that makes it clear that you are
worrying for her much more than she ever worries for herself.
Eka, more bookish and less popular with boys, worries a
little. Where Natia's attitude toward boys, teachers, and
parents is brash and openly confrontational, Eka is more
quiet and watchful .Natia believes her friend needs to toughen
up, and even instructs her to use the gun to scare off some
bullies. Eka's instincts are still forming, but she tends to keep
more to herself, and one guesses that she may have more
considered intentions.
Much of the film is spent in very particular observation of
the girls’ daily routines, from their perspective. Nana
Ekvtimishvili, who wrote and co-directed the film with her
husband, German filmmaker Simon Gross, based it on her own
childhood experiences, and the film benefits from that insider's
view. Even in a culture like this one, where girls as young as
14 can be kidnapped and forced into a marriage against their
will, girls do not generally feel themselves to be vulnerable
victims. They may even adopt a kind of defiance. Their
reaction to very real dangers may be much like Natia's attitude
about the gun, detached and even playful. Watching these
girls toy with the potential uses of a gun is a fitting parallel
to watching them navigate the rest of their world.
The last third of the film is where those observations pay
off. The gun goes o f f - not the literal gun, but a figurative one
— and the film's triumph is in capturing the difference in the
girls’ reactions. Fearless Natia is disconnected; she even
adopts a celebrative stance about a turn of events we know
she did not want. When the figurative gun goes off, Eka is
the one who fights, and who calls out a patriarchal commu
nity that shows no interest in protecting a 14-year-old girl.
And then, when the entire rest of the community moves on
as though no wrong has been done, Eka sits, sullen.
Then comes a deeply moving scene that is good enough
reason to watch this lovely, perceptive film. Quiet Eka rises,
and she seizes command of a dance floor at a wedding that
she does not celebrate. She dances a traditional folk dance
with fervor, co-opting a form of assent to the proceedings
into a medium for her own voice. Even if no one understands
her message quite the way she means it, Eka finds a way to
re-engage with her friend, and to express her truth.
The world of these two girls shifts at that wedding. They
remain friends, and the dangers they face are far from over.
They are still surrounded by loaded guns, including the
continued
on page 18