The Wishing Tree

Tengiz Abuladze's 1976 Georgian film is set in a Georgian village at the start of the twentieth century. Marita comes to live with her aunt and falls in love with Gedia, a poor young man, while her relatives are determined to marry her to the village's rich man. The story does not move straight ahead but is woven from short accounts of the strange figures who live there: the man searching for the tree where wishes come true, the poet who worships beauty, the woman considered mad. Abuladze's visual language rests on the Georgian painting tradition and on folk narrative; the colour and the compositions are almost iconographic. Its political side is implicit but plain: how the pressure of a community destroys the individual, a criticism legible under Soviet rule as well. Sofiko Chiaureli's performance is separately cited. It is counted as the second film of Abuladze's trilogy. Who it's for: viewers who like Georgian cinema, poetic storytelling and the form of the folk tale. Who it's not for: anyone wanting a straightforward plot, or avoiding scenes of violence against women.