Vaso Arabidze

This Soviet film is a biography of the Georgian primitive artist Nikoloz Pirosmanishvili (1862–1918), better known as Pirosmani, who died of starvation and sold his paintings to bars and restaurants for food and drink. The film experiments with color control techniques based on the painter’s style.

The film tells the story of a hard-working and unfruitful life of a peasant from Adjara in the 1930s, who is forced to serve others to avoid starvation and destruction.

Love, adventure, and revolutionary uprising in 19th century Georgia.

Blinded by the desire of wealth, mother of Siko makes him leave behind his wife and child and go to America.

Nunu and Iago are in love with each other. The married guard Girgola wants to get hold of the woman. Girgola gets Iago arrested and makes Nunu marry his retarded brother. On one occasion he finds the woman alone and rapes her. Nunu jumps in the river to commit suicide but gets saved by Iago’s friends. Iago escapes from jail, but Girgola attacks his hideout and haves him killed together with his friends. Girgola also kills Nunu’s old father and accuses Nunu of the murder. Nunu is tied to a pole and dies in the exile.

Following an order of the landowner, the bride of Arsena’s fellow villager gets kidnapped and the bride’s father is relentlessly flogged. Arsena tries to rescue the woman but fails and goes to the mountains with his newly married wife. Above all, Arsena learns that his wife is impregnated by the landowner and burns down his house. Arsena gets arrested, but manages to escape and joins the rebel peasants. Arsena feels that with the passage of time the rebels turn into criminals and continues to fight with the oppressors alone.

Christine, a village girl, raped by Jason Uqmadze, a local aristocrat, decides to take her own life but the villagers spot her body in the river and manage to save her. After the suicide fiasco, Christine befriends Sona, her alleged well-wisher in hope to start her life anew. Instead of helping her, as promised, Sona takes Christine to the brothel… Produced in the Russian Empire.