Since Otar Left

The richly deserving winner of the grand prize in the international Critics Week at Cannes 2004, Since Otar Left (Depuis qu'Otar est parti) is an exquisitely bittersweet drama set in Tbilisi, the crumbling capital of the post-Soviet republic of Georgia. Three generations off woman - the stoically beautiful Ada (Dinara Droukarova), her lusty mother Marina (Nino Khomassouridze) and whip-smart grandmother Eka (Ester Gorintin) - live together in a book-filled apartment.  When news comes that Marina's brother Otar has been killed while on the job in France, Maria and Ada decide to conceal his death rather than break Eka's heart.  Yet their lie soon spawns larger and larger ones.