Tengiz Abuladze

Tengiz Abuladze Georgian ?????? ??????? 31 January 1924 6 March 1994 was a Georgian film director screenwriter theatre teacher and Peoples Artist of the USSR He is regarded as one of the best Soviet directors Abuladze studied theatre direction 19431946 at the Shota Rustaveli Theatre Institute Tbilisi Georgia and filmmaking at the VGIK AllUnion State Institute of Cinematography in Moscow He graduated from VGIK in 1952 and in 1953 he joined Gruziyafilm Georgia Film Studios as a director He was awarded the title of Peoples Artist of the USSR in 1980 His first film Magdanas Donkey 1956 which he directed with Rezo Chkheidze won the Best Fiction Short award at the 1956 Cannes Film Festival He is most famous for his film trilogy The Plea The Supplication 1968 The Wishing Tree 1977 and Repentance 1984 released 1987 which won him the Lenin Prize 1988 and the first Nika Award for Best Picture Repentance won the Special Jury Prize at the 1987 Cannes Film Festival In 1987 he was a member of the jury at the 15th Moscow International Film Festival Abuladze came to prominence in the Soviet Union under perestroika when his banned film Repentance a blistering expose of the Stalinist terror was released in 1986 Repentance revolves around the death of an old tyrant Varlam Aravidze and the refusal of a woman Ketevan Barateli to leave his corpse in peace She repeatedly disinters the corpse and at the trial disinters also the forbidden secrets of the past Aravidze is universalized as Adolf Hitler Benito Mussolini and Joseph Stalin but most obviously as Stalins fellow Georgian Lavrentiy Beria