Director: Elene Naveriani

Stars: Eka Chavleishvili, Temiko Chichinadze, Lia Abuladze

Writer-director Naverriani’s picture is a slow-burning but deeply affecting feminist portrait of a middle-aged woman living life to her own rules. Forty-eight-year old Etero runs a drab supermarket in a small Georgian village. Most of her adult life was spent looking after her brother and father so she never really had the opportunity for a relationship. Despite the derision of her almost comically unpleasant local women friends who tease her about the coming menopause, Etero remains stoic and unapologetic of the life choices she has made. After a near fatal accident, when she is picking wild blackberries and is distracted by a blackbird and falls, she begins a tender affair with married delivery man Murman (Chichinadze), causing her to reflect on her solitary existence. The brusque characters and deadpan performances feel redolent of the work of Finnish auteur Aki Kaurismäki, while Agnesh Pakozdi’s cinematography is suitably autumnal, allowing in occasional chinks of light. Chavleishvili’s understated and nuanced performance as a woman of a certain age, hitherto almost completely side-lined, is extraordinary, and the open-ended conclusion, where Etero has a stunning revelation and the titular metaphor becomes clear, is stirring and hugely satisfying.

David Willoughby

Follow David on Twitter @DWill_Crackfilm