A vivid, intimate drama about flatmates in Georgia, A Room Of My Personal was a stand-out entry on the Karlovy Range Worldwide Movie Competition. Directed by Ioseb ‘Soso’ Bliadze, its two leads had been collectively awarded the Greatest Actress prize for his or her sparky and delicate turns. Taki Mumladze — who additionally co-wrote the screenplay — stars as Tina, an introverted younger girl who must hire a room from a stranger, for causes that change into more and more clear, and engaging, because the story continues.
Extroverted occasion woman Megi (Mariam Khundadze) is straight-talking and abrupt, initially seeing Tina merely as a path to the hire. The Covid pandemic is in full drive in Tbilisi, with bars presumably shut, so Megi’s crew drop spherical repeatedly for drinks, smokes and vigorous banter earlier than curfew. Tina is slowly drawn into this world, and ultimately confides in Megi about her troubled previous, making a touching bond.
It’s an enthralling, affecting drama that explores the awkwardness and enforced intimacy of a flatshare, however goes on to sort out rather more than that, together with home violence, drink spiking and LGBTQI+ points. The fizzy, fiercely impartial Megi is a brilliant mild in a darkish patriarchal world, the place feminine victims are blamed, and the place younger girls lengthy to maneuver to a extra broad-minded nation. Older girls are conspicuous by their absence – partly due the pandemic, but in addition implicitly a cultural divide. They’re referred to and heard over the telephone, and normally come throughout as disapproving merchandise of a distinct technology, and/or a supply of hysteria.
Each stars earn their Crystal Globes with nuanced performances: Mumladze flitting between timid and sexually charged, recalling a younger Heather Matarazzo; Khundadze always stunning and amusing, like a Georgian Holly Golightly.
Megi is a posh younger girl who might be abrupt one minute and sort the following; the form of one who doesn’t do small discuss or fake to be remotely all for one thing she isn’t. She makes use of a formidable English accent for her job in telesales. She doesn’t possess a kettle, one thing that sends Tina on a revealing mission to her former abode.
Particulars like this entertain and coloration the characters, as do their interactions with supporting solid, together with some male pals who’re amiable; others much less so. It’s no accident that the movie’s title remembers Virginia Woolf’s feminist essays: that is about younger girls trying to find independence, and discovering consolation in reference to one other. It’s a pleasant watch that offers a recent perspective on life in up to date Georgia.
