The Eccentrics

Eldar Shengelaia's 1974 Georgian film follows Ertaoz, who travels to the city to sell a chicken and pay off his father's debts. There he falls in love with a woman, helps her dispose of a body and is arrested for it. The film has no interest in realism. Events follow each other illogically and the characters take this as ordinary; the narrative sits between a folk tale and a satire. Ertaoz eventually sets about building a flying machine. Although made in the Soviet period the film openly mocks bureaucracy and authority. It does so through the absurd rather than stating it, and passes the censors that way. The cinematography is colourful and stylised. Who it's for: those who like Georgian cinema and absurd comedy. Who it's not for: viewers expecting a consistent plot; the film deliberately abandons logic.