"Sherekilebi" or "The Eccentrics" is a film from the Soviet Union from 1974, so this film will have its 50th anniversary next year and hopefully director Eldar Shengelaia will live to see this too. He turned 90 in January 2023. I am not sure if this round birthday has to do with the fact that one of Berlin's and probably Germany's as well (because of the close connection to the German Film Museum) retro cinemas dedicated a couple weeks to Shengelaia and his body of work. This movie we have here is surely among his most known. It is between this one and a film he made almost one decade later. Shengelaia already started shooting films in the late 1950s and his most recent and maybe final work, a short film, is from 2020, which means that he has worked in 8 different decades. Isn't that something? This movie we got here from him is relatively short, stays under the 80-minute mark. Oh by the way, he has only worked on 13 films throughout his career, so there have been lengthy breaks, especially in the second half of his career, but he always returned to filmmaking. This film here also feels much more Georgian somehow than Russian or Soviet you can say. Shengelaia, a pretty melodic and memorable name, was not in charge of the screenplay here, no big surprise as he only started writing his own films really in the earlier 1980s, indeed with the film I mentioned earlier that has a much more complicated title (for westerners) than this one here and that is also considered a good choice for his most known work. Actually, I watched that one as well, but we will talk about it later. The actual writer here is Revaz Gabriadze, who has also worked on films from other filmmakers, including a family affair, that are considered among the most known and best-received from their country in retrospective. Good for him. But don't worry if you have not heard the name or so. Neither have I, but hey, we can always go and check out their film, can't we. If we find them that is. It is really not too easy with some of Shengelaia's works.
If you look at the cast, you will also find the name of Ariadna Shengelaia. This pretty stunning ginger actress from Uzbekistan originally is also still alive, also considerably over the age of 80 now and she was married to Eldar Shengelaia at that point and they stayed married for over five more years afterwards, a total of almost 25 years then and this does not yet include the years and months during which they were an unmarried couple. I wish I could say more about the cast here, but I really can't. Quite difficult and I shall leave this to those viewers that are experts on Soviet films. Dato Jgenti I found interesting during the watch and he was still a pretty young man back then, so chances are he could maybe also be still alive. One of not many from the cast with almost half a century passed now. Sadly, he acted only on two other projects and then stepped away from acting and the film industry it seemed. Pity. But maybe good for him nonetheless. For us viewers not so much because he had great screen presence. There is always something pretty raw and authentic to these old Soviet films, the ones I have seen at least, in terms of comedy, interactions between characters and also nature. Just look at the father-son moments early on with some wisdom, some dancing etc. And not much later, in the presence of another friend, the father dies and the friend makes a somewhat funny statement that the old man has taken the wine to the heaven's gate or people linked to it. I do not remember the exact name he used. The nature is also always kinda fascinating in these films and I will say now that, even if some may hate me for it, I prefer Shengelaia over Tarkovsky in terms of what I have seen. The pretty depressing situation in which several characters are stuck down there in a hole and being held as prisoners was also treated relatively lightly given the hopeless circumstances. Or maybe they were treated like this because they are not even hopeless. After all, they do get away, find an exit and what happens in the end is a strong contrast then with them having left the hold for good and now they are so high up in the air above everybody else. The technical component linked to their vehicle probably only became a bit forgettable for me because I do not have the greatest technical interest in general. Might be my loss, but it's alright.
The scenes before that are good enough too with characters being constantly wrapped in carpets when they might or might not be dead and the director's wife's character constantly being visited by men and pushing other men into the chimney where they may even be about to die. This may sound serious, but it was really never about anything other than the (goofball) comedy you can say. I liked it. This not too long film is a well-rounded effort from almost every perspective, no matter if we look at the story, the script or the sceneries. The snow I am of course always especially fond of, but that is down to personal preference and maybe you will like other inclusions more, depending on where you come from and what entertains you the most. But I doubt you will find it all bland and boring here. I still think the rating on imdb is way too high really, but it was a decent watch. Greatness I never really saw in it, but the thumbs-up was also never too much in doubt and the character's shenanigans and overall creativity at the same time though were there from the very start. Oh yeah, I also liked the moment for example when we have one character sit or lie there very comfortably and his well slaves, employers, soldiers, whatever you wanna call them were there running around him in circles. I am sure that if you are an expert on Soviet history and society, you will find many other interesting inclusions that made a political impact perhaps even, but even with the untrained eye that I have this ais a film that will not immediately disappear from your mind the moment you step out of the movie theater. That is all then. I could also say that this is a color film and not in black-and-white, but this should almost be a given now as during the mid-70s the era of black-and-white was pretty much over and this also not yet used as a stylistic choice again. But yeah, I give the outcome here a thumbs-up and recommend checking it out, without being too enthusiastic about this recommendation. Thanks Mr. Shengelaia nonetheless for coming up with a film here that is smart and funny and also has some decent heart to it.
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