Smiling Georgia

Dariko only has one tooth left. The retiree had all her other teeth pulled in 2012. In the scope of parliamentary election campaigning, President Mikheil Saakashvili had promised to make a break with the disastrous post-Soviet approach to dentalcare and provide all Georgians in need with dentures. There was only one condition: people had to vote to keep his UNM party in power. A cynical neighbour of Dariko quipped that Saakashvili actually just wanted to hug no-longer-toothless old women on the campaign trail. In any case, this set off a stampede of elderly individuals from rural areas who couldn't wait to have their worn-out teeth removed to make way for new ones. Then Saakashvili's party lost the election. Nine years later, the village where Dariko lives – whose name translates to "No Name" – is still without pearly whites. With a calm touch and non-judgemental gaze, Luka Beradze's portrait depicts the pensioners as they go about their everyday lives, as they meet up, eat, watch television, celebrate – alternating between trust that someone will still come through for them and disenchantment with politics. For all its missing teeth, the film is no less biting, providing a voice for those who the country's political class has forgotten.

Source: Filmfestival goEast 2024