On the Fringe

 

BLACKBIRD BLACKBIRD BLACKBERRY (2024) (B+) - 48-year-old Etero seems to enjoy her independent life of relative solitude. She has no man to take care of; her oppressive father and brother have died; and she enjoys a big slab of cake whenever she wants. She has a near-death experience while out picking blackberries, and so she feels bold enough to begin a fling with the kind man who delivers cleaning products to her modest store in rural Georgia.

 

Etero (Eka Chavleishvilli) is overweight and masculine looking, but she gives up her virginity to a married man, Murman (Temiko Chichinadze), who eventually accepts a change in his route, putting their fling on hiatus. Etero is wide-eyed but wary of all those around her, especially the Greek chorus of biddies she hangs out with. She seems to have been object of curiosity her whole life, since her mother died in childbirth. The struggles taking care of her father and brother are mostly hinted at. 

 Director Elene Neveriani (writing with two others) spends nearly two hours peeling away the layers of her stoic heroine. I was reminded of Kate Chopin's novel The Awakening. Neveriani does not shy away from middle-aged nudity and the sexual antics of her ordinary stars. Her camera also alights on the the little wonders of nature, including the blackberries and blackbirds that give the film its title.

Chavleishvilli carries the film on her shoulders, as Etero always has a sharp comment to defuse a situation, no matter the context. A potential crisis arises late in the film, and her journey to the big city of Tbilisi appears to be the character's first ever adventure outside of her bubble. Of course, she insists on going it alone. She still fiercely guards her independence, but we now know that her walls are not impenetrable. 

ALL DIRT ROADS TASTE OF SALT (2023) (B) - It rains a lot in this tone poem that cycles through the memory of a woman from girlhood to middle age.  It's all about atmosphere and random sounds and the touch of loved ones -- the types of images that your brain might fire off when looking back at your life. 

This is the debut feature of Raven Jackson, who clearly has a eye for powerful visuals. She is partial to intense close-ups, partial faces, characters' hands, the patter of rain -- lots of rain -- the bathing of a baby in the kitchen sink. It's as if she was able to capture her own dreams or flashes of memory from a therapy session. The sum total of all the dialogue in the film might fill about five pages of a script. 

 

Jackson might try your patience as she jumps back and forth in time across 92 minutes as she unspools the life of Mack (played by Kaylee Nicole Johnson as a youth, Charleen McClure as an adult) in the rural South. We track an on-again/off-again relationship with a would-be soulmate, Wood, and piece together the other highlights of her life, from an opening scene fishing with her father to her time approaching middle age.

The centerpiece is a wordless eight-minute scene between Mack and Wood. In the middle of that scene, a hug that lasts three minutes, an eternity on screen. That interlude, along with a scene of young Mack's parents dancing in the house to and R&B dusty, can bring to mind Charles Burnett's foundational independent film "Killer of Sheep." In the end, Jackson does not quite have the command that Burnett had and his confidence in crafting a compelling narrative. 

BONUS TRACKS

The climax of "Blackbird" features a variation on the Georgian song "Gamodi," here interpreted by Georgia's alternative-music artist Robi Kukhianidze of the punk band Outsider:

 

The soundtrack also features a Big Band-era song called "Gamodi" by Lili Gegelia:

 

"All Dirt Roads" features a luminous scene of young Mack's parents dancing to "If I Were Your Woman" by Gladys Knight & the Pips: