Blackbird Blackbird Blackberry

Based on the novel of the same name by Tamta Melashvili, Georgian-born director Elene Naveriani’s third feature film Blackbird Blackbird Blackberry sees middle-aged woman, Etero (Eka Chavleishvili) undergo a sexual awakening after having a near-death experience that sees her almost fall into a river while picking wild blackberries. Spurred by the events of that morning, she ignites a passionate love affair with Murman (Temiko Chichinadze), the delivery man who brings stock to her beauty shop. Not wanting her affair with a married man to become the main subject of gossip within the small town she lives in, she keeps the relationship a secret.

While this premise sounds like the set-up to a steamy romance, there’s a fierce feminist streak to this movie, which smartly subverts genre expectations. Although Etero swoons over her lover telling her sweet nothings over the phone, the real pleasure that night derives from her exploring her body for the first time. Having grown up under the toxic masculinity of her father and brother (something that she’s still haunted by), the shop owner has lived a sheltered life that her friends take pity on her for. Instead of wanting what they have, however, Etero is determined to remain alone and live her life the way that she sees fit, even if it goes against what others expect from her.

Chavleishvili is wonderful in the starring role as she transfixes viewers with mesmerising monologues that articulately outline her past alongside her outlook on the world. Nowhere is this better exemplified than in a memorable scene in which she animatedly reenacts a time when a drunken suitor arrived at her house in the middle of the night. Told with an unyielding defiance, this moment perfectly exemplifies the actor’s performance, highlighting the feminist themes that course through this film’s veins.

Viewers will want to lose themselves within the gorgeous Georgian countryside, which serves as the backdrop to the ongoing drama and a rich cinematic language that symbolises Etero’s sexual metamorphosis. However, the lack of any sense of escalation throughout the slow-paced plot means that the final act doesn’t carry much of an impact.

Despite its underwhelming conclusion, Naveriani’s Blackbird Blackbird Blackberry is a meditative feminist subversion of a coming-of-age tale, spearheaded by a magnificent turn from Chavleishvili.

Andrew Murray

Blackbird Blackbird Blackberry is released in select cinemas on 3^rd May 2024.

Watch the trailer for Blackbird Blackbird Blackberry here: