- His graduation work was a short documentary film about the conductor Dmitry Arakishvili.
- He was a Soviet, Georgian film director and teacher who graduated from the railway technical school, then the Tbilisi Theater Institute ( 1943 - 1946 ), where his teachers were G. A. Tovstonogov and D. A. Aleksidze.
- In the last years of his life he did not make films.
- In 1955 , together with Rezo Chkheidze, they filmed the film " Lurja Magdana " based on the story of Ekaterina Gabashvili . The film tells about a donkey, which was left for dead by a rich and cruel owner and the children of a poor widow came out. For the film, the director changed the end of the story: if in the story, after the rich man claims the donkey, the judge makes a fair decision in favor of the widow, then in the film, the bribed judge awards the donkey to the rich man. The director explained that he needed to show a drama, not a Christmas story. In 1956, the film was awarded a Special Mention in the Short Film Competition at the Cannes Film Festival.as "Best Film with a Fictional Plot", becoming the first Soviet film in a long time to be recognized at a major Western film festival.
- In 1967 he finished the film " Prayer " based on the works of Vazha-Pshavela (poems "Aluda Ketelauri" and "Guest and Host"). In it, he combined plots about the blood feud of the Khevsurs and Kistins , a parable about the clash of Good (Virgin) and Evil , personified by the spirit Macil , and philosophical interludes. The director considered "Prayer" to be his main creation, summarizing on a philosophical level the content of the two subsequent films of the trilogy - "The Tree of Desire" and "Repentance". "Prayer" was almost not shown in cinemas in the USSR, but in 1973 it received the Grand Prix of the IFF author's film in San Remo ( Italy ).
- In the 1960s , the director conceived a film about the Georgian artist Niko Pirosmani . He saw Sergo Zakariadze in the title role . The director applied for permission to shoot the film in Goskino , but did not receive permission.
- Since 1974 he taught at the Tbilisi Theater Institute. He was one of the initiators of the creation of a film faculty at the institute, where he taught a course in film directing. Temur Babluani and N. Janelidze are among his pupils . Since the same year, he has been the first artistic director of the creative association of the film studio "Georgia-Film".
- The second work of Abuladze - the everyday drama " Strange Children " - was created in 1958 under the impression of a newspaper essay by N. Alexandrova, published in " Komsomolskaya Pravda ", while the director moved the events to Georgia. Soviet critics reproached the film for imitating Italian neorealism . Modern biographers of the director note the influence of the neorealists, as well as the film directors M. Antonioni and F. Fellini who inherited them , but at the same time they also talk about the director's own poetic language . The film was also awarded honorary awards at international film festivals .
- His most significant work was the film " Repentance ". The film was shot back in 1984 , but lay "on the shelf." At the end of 1986 , largely thanks to the personal efforts of the first secretary of the Union of Cinematographers of the USSR Elem Klimov , a private screening of "Repentance" took place at the Cinema House, at the beginning of the next year the picture was released in wide distribution. The demonstration of "Repentance" became a landmark phenomenon of Perestroika in the USSR.
- In 1953 he graduated from VGIK (workshop of S. I. Yutkevich and M. I. Romm ). At VGIK he also studied with S. M. Eisenstein , L. V. Kuleshov , A. S. Khokhlova , and A. P. Dovzhenko .
- He was awarded People's Artist of the USSR in 1980.
- In 1962, he filmed the 'sad comedy' " I, grandmother, Iliko and Illarion " - an adaptation of the novel of the same name by Nodar Dumbadze . The film was released to the public and brought the director all-Union popularity. Mikhail Romm highly appreciated the film, noting the simultaneous combination of humor and philosophy of the Georgian people in the film.
- The director's works were distinguished by a combination of general philosophical problems and national Georgian motives (many of his films are adaptations of Georgian literature). For the brightness and expressiveness of the images, his paintings were compared with the works of Niko Pirosmani and Pieter Brueghel.
- Since 1953 he was the director of the film studio " Georgia-Film.
- In 1978 , returning from Yerevan from the show of the Tree of Desire, he got into a car accident. His driver was killed, and he himself was seriously injured and was treated for several months.
- He was a Member of the CPSU since 1978 .
- He got the Award "Nika" in the nominations: "Best Feature Film", "Best Director's Work", "Best Screenplay" (together with N. Dzhanelidze and R. Kveselava) (film "Repentance", 1987).
- He received "The Critics' Prize for the best foreign film of the year" in Poland for his movie "Repentance" in 1988.
- His film " Repentance" was also shown at film festivals in the USSR and abroad, where it won many honorary awards, including the Grand Prix at the Cannes Film Festival .
- He received The National Film Award of Italy "David di Donatello" (For the best foreign film of the year on the screens of Italy, the film " The Tree of Desire ", 1979).
- He is regarded as one of the best Soviet directors.
- In 1978, according to an official biography, Abuladze at the age of 54 became a Communist Party member.
- In 1980 he was awarded the title People's Artist of the USSR. By now he was one of the leading Soviet Georgian filmmakers. On the surface, he was the perfect example of the Soviet cultural nomenklatura. Then in 1983-84 he made Repentance, the film (made for Georgian television) that was to catapult him to worldwide attention.
- With encouragement from the then-Soviet Foreign Minister, Eduard Shevardnadze, his film "Repentance" was released, first in Georgia and then across the Soviet Union, where it attracted record audiences and became the flagship film of the whole glasnost process.
- He has been a teacher at the Rustaveli Theater in Tbilisi since 1974. Around that time he also became head of a division of the Georgian film studio, Gruzia Film.
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