Georgian film director whose Repentance fired the cultural starting gun of glasnost
When Repentance was shelved, Abuladze kept the only video copy under his bed, fearing it would be destroyed.
A Georgian Soviet film director. His debut Magdana's Donkey (1955), co-directed with Rezo Chkheidze, won the Cannes short film prize and signaled Soviet cinema's return to the international stage. His trilogy of The Plea (1967), The Wishing Tree (1976), and Repentance (1984) marked his peak; Repentance, shelved for two years after completion, was the first Soviet film to confront the Stalinist terror in allegorical form, and its 1986 release at the Fifth Congress of the Filmmakers' Union became the cultural starting gun of glasnost. It won the Grand Prix at Cannes in 1987; Abuladze later served as a People's Deputy of the USSR (1989–1991).
Career Timeline
- 1943Entered Tbilisi Theatre Institute, graduated 1946
- 1953Graduated VGIK, joined Gruziya-film
- 1955Co-directed Magdana's Donkey, Cannes short film prize (1956)
- 1967Completed The Plea, first film of the trilogy
- 1976Completed The Wishing Tree, professor at Tbilisi Theatre Institute
- 1984Completed Repentance, banned for two years
- 1986Repentance released, became a symbol of glasnost
- 1989Elected People's Deputy of the USSR