FREE JUST TURN UP

We’re screening Repentance, the 1980s Georgian Soviet political satire directed by Tengiz Abuladze.

Produced in 1984, the film was initially banned in the Soviet Union for its allegorical critique of Stalinism. But in 1987, the film was released to fanfare across the USSR, Abuladze was awarded the Order of Lenin, and he accompanied Mikhail Gorbachev on his first visit to New York. 

Immersed in a surreal atmosphere, it follows the days after the death of Varlam Aravidze, the Stalin-like mayor of a small Georgian town, when his corpse mysteriously keeps returning and appearing in the most unusual places. What does the return of this familiar tyrannical face mean for the town’s residents?

The film will be presented by Nathan Brand, a former PhD researcher at the University of Leeds. 

When and where: Wednesday, 5 March, from 6:30 PM onwards at Hyde Park Book Club.