"Tsisperi mtebi anu daujerebeli ambavi" or "Blue Mountains, or Unbelievable Story" is a Soviet film from 1983 that is mostly in the Georgian language and this also makes total sense if you look at who made it and which actors appeared in it. Difficult to call it a Russian movie, it seems through and through Georgian. You also find parts not only in Russian in here, but some French and German too. The latter caught my attention especially with that young girl saying it. Sadly, I did not find any information on the child actress' name and same is true about the blonde or rather red-haired secretary who is on her break on a few occasions, so yeah the cast list could indeed be more complete here. Anyway, the writer and director here is Eldar Shengelaia and he was almost 50 when he made this film back in 1983, so this means that it has its 40th anniversary now and this also means that Shengelaia turned 90 not too long ago and is still with us. Hopefully, this is also the case if you come here a bit delayed to read this review of mine. His round birthday may actually also play a little role why I got to watch this film on the big screen. There was a short retrospective going on and other films from the man were also shown. If you take the imdb ratings into account, it is probably between this one and a film he made about a decade earlier which is his most known. Given the fact that he worked in a total of eight different decades apparently and that his last project is not too long ago, the number of films he made is not super high, definitely not as high as you would expect. Shengelaia's co-writer here is Rezo Cheishvili, who is no longer with us, but it seems that the two were quite close as they worked together on several occasions and also you find Cheishvili credited as a writer for Shengelaia's perhaps final career work, a short film from 2020 and Cheishvili had already been dead for five years at that point, but he still got the heads-up from Shengelaia for his contribution. That's what true friends do I assume. They were also both born in 1933.
But back to this film here: It is not super old I would say. There are quite a few cast members that are still alive now. Ramaz Giorgobiani is one of them and he is getting closer to 80 now too, so he was half as old back then as he is now you can say. Maybe he is the closest to a lead this film has, even if I personally would call them all supporting. Nobody has the screentime really in these over 1.5 hours that sets him apart from the rest. It is also not a film about individual performances or fates, but it is all about the overall picture. I liked how full the room was during the screening. The film deserves it, even if the rating on imdb may be nonetheless a bit too high as a whole. Like come one, one of the best 100 films ever or even higher this is not, but it would be there if more people had seen and rated it and it could have kept the current rating or only lost 0.1 or 0.2 in the process. This film relies heavily on recurring jokes from beginning to end. There were maybe too much to remember them all or maybe some I might have overlooked too, but I will still give it a try and say what stayed in the mind for me. There is of course the guy who just wants to learn French without getting disturbed, another crucial reference to this place/country/film reaching out to the world outside. I think it was also his office or door where people were constantly knocking and he pretended not to be there because they maybe had something not so nice in mind. The one who enters the room, however, seems to be the closest he has to a friend at the office. Then there is the elevator chaos Which was funny because it stopped a few steps to high up, something that could be fixed quickly early on, but later on it seems a man is stuck there and towards the end they say something needs to be done about it. Is he the one who gets out of the house last there? Maybe when enough collapsed around the elevator for him to get out? I am not sure.
Then there is of course the guy who brings his daughter and they visit their wife/mother at the office. Darejan Sumbatashvili was pretty attractive there, not gonna lie. One guy from the office would agree. He also got the husband's evil looks on a few occasions, but the outburst is not happening. At least not at the end ironically when it is a completely harmless situation and there he is so jealous all of a sudden. This made no sense at all and that is why it was so funny. There is chaos all over and no reason to this movie, which maybe fits all the character quite nicely and this is why it worked so well. Then there is of course the constant talking about a picture or painting and how it is situated somewhere where it does not feel right and should be moved elsewhere. Or should maybe the guy sitting under it move elsewhere? There was a great deal of absurdity to this running gag too, especially when said man is really almost killed by the big picture towards the end then. Okay, "big picture" could be understood differently for sure in this context. This was not even intended. Another inclusion I need to mention are the folks outside playing motoball (motorcycle polo) or whatever this sport is called. In any case, it is nothing that has really stayed successful in the decades since then. They say it has become a thing in Europe, but seemed it did not stay this way. For some reason, I found it outrageously funny when, on one occasion after the guy in the office keeps complaining about the players outside so much, all of a sudden an important figure from the motoball society or community stands before him. We do not really know why he is there or what he wants, but it was still so hilarious and totally came out of nowhere.
Then there is the old man who just wants a certain piece of information of something to be dealt with and he is so kind and courteous. He basically does nothing else, but when we see him, it is nonetheless funny because we know pretty much exactly what he would say and that he would take all the blame once again on his search for the director as if he is constantly interrupting people. Like also how he asks if the director is in and the woman says yes and he goes to get his buddy and seconds later the director is heading out again. Poor fella this man. Not the director, but the one waiting. Wasn't he also the one is on one occasion called the guy that keeps staring at the ceiling? And last but not least, there is the one where I mentioned the actor's name not too long ago and he just wants people, especially the boss, to read his book, but he is having a hard time and, in a way, almost surrenders towards the end then and gives in and accepts that nobody will really be reading it. They also used his book's title for the name of the movie I thin, at least part of it, so yeah if you expected blue mountains here or some great nature recordings I have to disappoint you. Almost all of it takes place on the inside of an office building with a great deal of bureaucracy. No way you could just hang a picture somewhere else without proper discussion and evaluation and maybe an expert panel. What you do see outside are the folks playing ball. This came also repeatedly and almost seemed like the exact same approach from the inside through the window while we are listening to this really, really catchy music.
I don't think I have to go totally into detail here how the world outside with its (technical) progress is supposed to be seen as the world outside the Soviet Union and that this is most likely a movie that was not particularly liked inside the Soviet Union. In the end, the entire construct collapses. The parallel could honestly not be less subtle there. I was entertained nicely here. The positive recommendation for this film was never in doubt for me. Maybe I do not perceive it as great as the imdb rating suggests and others during my screening also liked it more, but the thumbs-up I still safe. I also would not say it is a mix between comedy and drama as it is hinted on imdb. More likely comedy exclusively. If you did not understand the characters' words and only saw their serious faces and expressions and monotonous language, then you could think it is a very sterile drama, but subtitles will help you in that department. For me, it reminded me a bit of a certain place from the Asterix movies, but go make up your mind yourself how you perceive it. I suggest you go give it a chance, if it is shown on television or at a nearby theater. I would not call it a must-see though. The film attracted some awards attention in Poland and Spain by the way and I keep misspelling its title because of the similarity to a famous tennis player. The beginning of the title at least, but yeah anyway, I would have a hard time in general to say where this film was from if I only read the title and had not found out about the language origins. This is really it now. Go watch.
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