Line of Credit / Felicità

Salomé Alexi, GE 2014
Screenplay, Editing: Salomé Alexi; Cinematography: Jean-Louis Padis; Music: Reso Kiknadze; Cast: Nino Kasradze, Zanda Ioseliani, Ana Kacheisvili, Zaza Chkheidze, Tamar Mamulashvili.
DCP, color, 85 min. Georgian with English subtitles (on 30.11.) or German subtitles (on 21.12.)

Bedniereba (Felicità)
Salomé Alexi, GE 2009
Screenplay: Zaira Arsenishvili; Cinematography: Giorgi Beridze; Editing: Salome Machaidze, Elene Murjikneli; Music: Giya Kancheli; Cast: Marina Kobakhidze, Gia Abesalashvili, Nika Bakhia.
DCP, color, 30 min. Georgian with English subtitles (on 30.11.) or German subtitles (on 21.12.)

As in the films of her mother, Lana Gogoberidze, women also take center stage in Salomé Alexi’s films, but here under post-Soviet conditions. In her feature-length debut *Kreditis Limiti*, the focus is on Nino, an elegant woman in her mid-forties living in Tbilisi. During the Soviet era, her family was well-off, but those days are long gone. The family’s house is in disrepair, Nino’s small snack bar is struggling, and only an absurd pyramid scheme of microloans keeps the family afloat. Could a valuable painting on the wall serve as a lifeline? The Georgian financial crisis of 2009–2013 becomes a tragicomedy, a genre in which the director excels.

In *Felicità*, it is Tamara, the family breadwinner, who mourns her husband’s death via mobile phone and loudspeaker at his wake. Her lament increasingly turns into an accusation, as the unemployed men in the village complain about the lack of female caregiving, while the women work abroad in the West as caregivers to earn money.

(Gaby Babić/Barbara Wurm)

In the presence of Lana Gogoberidze and Salomé Alexi on November 30, 2024.

Photo: Crossing Europe