“Eka” (Lika Babluani) is a 14 year old girl living in Tbilisi, Georgia in 1992 [= right after the break-up of the former Soviet Union].
Eka lives with her mother & older sister. Her father is in prison but we never know why.
Film covers an intense period during which Eka’s BFF “Natia” (Mariam Bokeria) is abducted & forced to marry a local tough.
In Bloom was nominated by Georgia for this year’s Best Foreign Language Oscar, so we really wanted to like it. But despite several striking scenes, the narrative line in this feature co-directed Nana Ekvtimishvili & Simon Gross (based on a semi-autobiographical screenplay by Ekvtimishvili) made little overall sense to us, even after we watched it a 2nd time. (JLH: 3/5)
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Eka” (Lika Babluani) is a 14 year old girl living in Tbilisi, Georgia in 1992 [= right after the break-up of the former Soviet Union].
Eka lives with her mother & older sister. Her father is in prison but we never know why, nor do we know how long he has been in prison or how much more he has on his sentence.
Film covers an intense period during which Eka’s BFF “Natia” (Mariam Bokeria) is abducted & forced to marry a local tough. Since they are classmates, presumably that means Natia is also 14, even tho she is more physically develop–& considerably prettier–than Eka.
The specificity of the set-up leads me to suspect that this is a semi-autobiographical story based on trigger events in the early life of writer/co-director Nana Ekvtimishvili. (According to IMDb, Ekvtimishvili was born in Tbilisi in 1978, which means she would have been 14 years old in 1992.)
Nevertheless, despite several striking scenes, the narrative line made little overall sense to us, even after we watched it a 2nd time. (JLH: 3/5)
Middle Photo: “Natia” (Mariam Bokeria) & “Eka” (Lika Babluani) together in Tbilisi. Bottom Photo: Celebrating Natia’s birthday (presumably she has just turned 15).
Photo Credits: ???
Does In Bloom pass the Bechdel Test. Yes!
