I go out of my way to see movies filmed in languages I don't know, in the hope that I can intuit enough meaning from the action (and the actors' gestures and emotions) to learn some of the lingo. This movie is in the regional language of Soviet Georgia, a dialect I don't speak at all. Fortunately, there's not much dialogue here, and much of it is 'empty' dialogue: people yelling at each other rather than exchanging information.
There's a farmer whose olives are ready for harvesting. He has a big jar he wants to put them in -- a jar large enough to contain a man -- but his wife smashes a big piece out of it. (The jar looks suspiciously pre-broken; the props master hasn't done a good job.) The farmer summons a tinker, or whatever those tradesmen are called who mend pottery. The hole in the jar is large enough for the tinker to step right inside ... so, for some incomprehensible reason, he climbs INSIDE the jar to mend it. Once inside, of course he can't get out through the jar's narrow neck. The farmer keeps yelling at the tinker, who yells back from inside the jar. Oddly, the tinker -- he's the one who's trapped inside the jar, mind you -- seems to be calmer than the farmer. Eventually the tinker starts smoking his pipe whilst inside the jar: I laughed at the image of clouds of smoke emerging from within the jar. From this point the movie degenerates into slapstick.
As I couldn't follow all the dialogue, I shan't rate this comedy. But I laughed several times, and I think I was laughing in the right places, so I guess this movie succeeds at what it meant to do.
There's a farmer whose olives are ready for harvesting. He has a big jar he wants to put them in -- a jar large enough to contain a man -- but his wife smashes a big piece out of it. (The jar looks suspiciously pre-broken; the props master hasn't done a good job.) The farmer summons a tinker, or whatever those tradesmen are called who mend pottery. The hole in the jar is large enough for the tinker to step right inside ... so, for some incomprehensible reason, he climbs INSIDE the jar to mend it. Once inside, of course he can't get out through the jar's narrow neck. The farmer keeps yelling at the tinker, who yells back from inside the jar. Oddly, the tinker -- he's the one who's trapped inside the jar, mind you -- seems to be calmer than the farmer. Eventually the tinker starts smoking his pipe whilst inside the jar: I laughed at the image of clouds of smoke emerging from within the jar. From this point the movie degenerates into slapstick.
As I couldn't follow all the dialogue, I shan't rate this comedy. But I laughed several times, and I think I was laughing in the right places, so I guess this movie succeeds at what it meant to do.
