In Bloom (2013)
Directed by Nana Ekvtimishvili, Simon Gross
The Georgia of In Bloom, which is set in 1992, is no country for young women. Life is relentlessly bleak for fourteen-year-old Eka (Lika Babluani) and Natia (Mariam Bokeria), who are surrounded by joyless, mean-spirited adults, ignored or hectored at home, and harassed after school, Eka by bullies and Natia by a macho suitor who refuses to take no for an answer. But Natia’s incandescent courage, Eka’s quiet self-reliance, and both girls’ fierce loyalty and love for each other keeps a flickering ray of hope alive in this ferociously well-acted story of life in the struggling post-Soviet republic. Elise Nakhnikian (Dec 5, 9, 4pm at MoMA’s “Discovering Georgian Cinema”)