The Antique

Rusudan Glurjidze studied French Language and Literature at the Tbilisi State University, then Film Directing and Scriptwriting at the Georgian State Film and Theatre Institute. She is a member of Cinetech Film Production Company. Her directorial feature debut, House of Others, was awarded the Grand Prix at Karlovy Vary in 2016. The Antique premiered at Venise, in the Giornate degli Autori.

A word from the selection committee:
Enigmatic opacity shrouds parts of Georgian filmmaker Rusudan Glurjidze’s second feature film, like the coat of powdery snow covering the banks of Saint Petersburg, as we see the three protagonists - Medea, Lado and Vadim - walk down the river as they escape. Who is this feminine voice, remotely monitoring the operations of the secret antiques warehouse, as one would hear on a reality TV show? These are but some of the many unanswered questions that linger in the viewers’ head, generating a mysterious world off-screen not unlike a David Lynch film.
One of this compelling drama’s remarkable qualities is that it does not unfold all the creases of the canvas. The desire to tell the story of a tragic historical event - i.e. the illegal deportation of thousands of Georgian nationals in 2006 - never oversteps the bounds of fictional ambiguity, and therefore the core truth of it: in this instance, Putin’s Russia (the other faceless voice, made ubiquitous through his speeches broadcast over the radio). 
A network of subtle oddities in the mise-en-scène and the interpretation pierce through the deceptive classicism of The Antique, like a small colony of termites gnawing away at an old piece of furniture to reveal an even more fascinating sculpture beneath.
― Paola Raiman