Tbilisi from Dawn till Dusk

Two cars hurtle along the winding and steep streets of Georgia’s capital: a taxi being driven by a cheerful, nosy refugee from Sukhumi and an ambulance with a crew of paramedics, who provide assistance in emergencies. Random passengers, random conversations, micro-conversations, mini-relationships. A whirl of faces, gesticulations, looks and smiles. An endless stream of words. Tbilisi seen through a car windscreen seems to pulse with life, energy, and human resourcefulness, although the conversations are often sad. Poverty, unemployment, illness, emigration, political conflicts – that’s what the passengers talk about, those are the problems they have to face every day. The camera occasionally goes off on its own, to look inside people’s homes, to eavesdrop on toasts during supper, to see what a school exam, a choral concert rehearsal, a lesson for a blind person, a wedding ceremony or a country wedding party are like. And once again a return to the noisy street, baked by the scorching sun, full of passers-by, traders and customers. The stream of events and people is recorded fluently and with a speed that calls forth a music video. After watching this panorama you can’t remember the individual characters, but a strong impression of their shared presence remains, which has its own indelible, curious specificity. There must be some kind of magic in it…