Don't Believe the Hype

When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

A bleak film seen through the eyes of the 12/13 year-old boy Susa - a really convincing performance by Avtandil Tetradze - who is ever present.Susa lives in poverty with his mother, earning a small amount by selling bottles of illegally produced gin. Although street-wise, he is targeted by two older teenagers who demand money and bully him if he tries to avoid them. The only hope is that when Susa's father returns he will deliver the boy and his mother from poverty and a dead-end existence.Unlike many other films which deal with this theme, Susa does have a very caring, loving and hard-working mother. Susa keeps his own problems from her, not wanting to add himself to her own trials: I found this very moving.Not a great amount of dialogue - but you don't need it.

Pretty well acted and filmed, continuously entertaining, but left me very depressed behind. The latter came forth from observing the circumstances people have to live in, due to no fault of their own.The whole movie long we are expecting his father. Eventually, he appears BUT improves nothing in the situation at hand. Even worse, while I was expecting (hoping) that he would intervene in the daily "meeting" with two guys on the street who confiscate part of Susa's earnings, he knowingly ignored the problem and did nothing to help.The screening that I attended was part of the Rotterdam Film Festival 2010. The maker was present and we had an enlightening Q&A, especially about how the movie ended with a confrontation between two main characters. That final clash solved nothing, hence my depressed feelings about the hopeless situation these people are in. The Q&A clarified a lot of things that were not apparent for me while viewing. The latter can be my fault, of course.