Director: Mikheil Gabaidze
Cast: David Jakeli, Zaal Goguadze, Tatia Tatarashvili
Running time: 15mins
Film festivals are expensive – and so they often struggle to break even, let alone make a profit. With submission fees often posing as the only dependable source of revenue that many festivals have access to, that can make granting waivers difficult.
Stories told by artists working on a shoe-string budget, or who are hit by censorship, or subjected to international sanctions, still need a platform, though. That’s why Indy Film Library’s Saturday Matinees series has returned for a sixth season.
Over this most recent run of matinees, IFL will be showcasing work from places where monetary and legal constraints have prevented the free and easy communication of their artistic or political visions.
The first film in our free-to-view programme is Vasomotor Rhinitis, by Georgian director Mikheil Gabaidze. Based on the short story The Death of a Government Clerk by Anton Chekhov, it largely sticks to a simple modernisation of the source material, but Gabaidze and his crew still manage to supply sufficient editorial invention, and absurdist imagery to justify taking that direct route.
As is the case with Chekhov’s original story, Vasomotor Rhinitis follows a spineless government official, as he obsesses over a perceived faux-pas to ridiculous lengths. Chief Specialist (David Jakeli) involuntarily sneezes on Head Official N69 (Zaal Goguadze) during a night out at the opera – delivered in delightful deadpan here, as it only becomes clear where Jakeli’s sputum has landed when Goguadze begins to dab the back of his bald head, which is faintly glistening in the dim theatre.
From there, the lower-ranking official immediately begins to bumble his way through a loud and meandering set of apologies, even as N69 protests that he would like to simply be left to enjoy the music. But rather than take the hint and move on, our babbling Chief Specialist tries again in vain to beg for forgiveness in the foyer, and then continues to stew on the event at home – no thanks to his wife (Tatia Tatarashvili).
Again and again, he states his need to apologise, and she reinforces it – even into the bedroom. The pair are even engaged in intercourse, and still, they obsess over their need to prove their class to their ‘superior’. Because otherwise, N69 is going to think Chief Specialist is “some kind of hick, without manners”. Of course, the further this goes, the more overtly Chief Specialist and everyone of his ilk end up undermining their grovelling efforts to please their masters. Nothing spells out “hick” quite like tonguing someone’s boot, begging for forgiveness, over the most minor and forgettable of social inconveniences.
In particular, Jakeli’s performance as Chief Specialist deserves commending to this end. He is irritatingly on-point – all flaring nostrils and forced grins as he bends over backwards, desperate to demonstrate his worthiness of N69, while in actuality only serving to reinforce the class-gulf between them. In the end, his chosen path as a voluntary invertebrate doesn’t pay off, either – having managed to portray himself as precisely the kind of hick he was keen to set himself apart from. With sycophants lining up to grovel before strongman leaders, from Georgia to America, it is a timely and telling performance, reminding us that for most of us, no amount of brown-nosing will see the ruling class treat us as equals.
As with all our previous Saturday Matinees, the film will be available to view for free in full from 09:00 UK time on Saturday the 11th of January, until the end of the weekend, via our Saturday Matinees theatre page. You can give it your own score out of five there! As the film is still trying to gain access to other festivals, the page is password protected. Use the code IFLMATINEE25 to access the film.