Filmmaker Otar Iosseliani, winner of the 1999 French Louis-Delluc Prize for “Goodbye, Terra Firme“, died on Saturday evening at the age of 89 in Georgia, French distributor Régine Vial of Les Films du Losange announced on Sunday.
Otar Iosseliani graduated from the VGIK film school in Moscow in the 1950s, where he already distinguished himself by the fantasy, non-conformity and playful detachment that would characterize his work.
His first films set in Soviet Georgia – “Fallen leavess” (1966), “Once upon a time there was a singing blackbird“(1970)”Pastoral” (1975) – brought him international recognition. Two decisive connections, René Clair and then Jacques Tati, linked him to France, where he settled for many years.
As early as 1968″Fallen leaves” – banned by the Soviet censors, as stated in the biography available on the Sofia Film Festival website – received the International Federation of Critics Award at the Cannes Festival, one of the many international titles he won during would win his entire career.
Filmed “The Moon’s Favorites” (1984), awarded in Berlin and Venice,”And there was light“(1989)”The butterfly hunt“(1992), “Bandits“(1996)”Goodbye, Terra Firme“(1999)”Monday morning“, awarded the Silver Bear at the Berlin Film Festival, “Autumn gardens“(2006) and”Chantrapas” (2010).
“Our work is hard and difficult enough to be light,” said Otar Iosseliani, quoted by the France-Presse agency. “I would like my films to be a gift, a gift for someone I don’t know, but who inevitably has the same ideas as me,” added the filmmaker, who has made several visits to Portugal.
“Happiness for me is when someone can express an idea well, whatever I had in mind: you watch a movie, read a book and say to yourself: what a joy, he thinks just like me!”, Iosseliani admitted.
The Cinemateca Portuguesa dedicated a retrospective to him in 2006, from which emerged the book “Otar Iosseliani: The World Viewed from Georgia: A Georgia Viewed from the World”, with literary organization, texts and translation by Luís Miguel Oliveira, Maria João Madeira, and collaboration by Ana Isabel Strindberg and Pedro Borges.
His last film, “Chant d’Hiver” (“Winter Song”), from 2015, did not have a commercial premiere in Portugal, but was awarded at the Lisbon and Estoril Film Festival.
The Prime Minister of Georgia, Irakli Garibashvili, published a condolence message on the government’s official website: “It is with great sadness that I learned of the death of the great Georgian filmmaker Otar Iosseliani, Meritorious Worker and People’s Artist of Georgia”.
“Otar Iosseliani had his own style, which is only characteristic of great film directors. His films have won international recognition for our country numerous times,” said the government official, who expressed his “solidarity to everyone, his family, film viewers, friends and colleagues. “.
Source: DN
