Filmography

1966 Fall of Leaves – A story of a young Georgian boy and his initiation into the adult world, with all its temptations, unfolding in the world of winemaking.

1971 There Once was a Song Thrush – A kind young man, Giya, plays kettle drum in an orchestra. He tries to take part in everything, but does not know how to value time. He is always late and unable to finish anything. One day he is killed in accident.

1976 Pastoral – According to Ioseliani, “The film Pastoral does not have a traditional dramatic plot; it is built like a musical composition, in a strict sonata form. The theme is meeting and parting; it is made with the love of the Georgian village where I spent my childhood. In the film, I also touch upon the ethical subject of human relationships. The main character is a village girl who embodies the high moral ideals of a person just beginning her life.”

1984 Favorites of the Moon – The story unfolds around two inanimate objects: an 18th-century chinaware set, and a 19th-century nude portrait. Characters inextricably linked to these two items are drawn into the story from various social circles, from art connoisseurs to terrorists.

1989 And There Was Light – The tranquility of an African village – where clay gods can still end a drought if they are petitioned in the right way – is broken by the arrival of civilization, in the form of lumberjacks. The tribe soon abandons their home and the clay gods are sold as souvenirs in the city.

1992 The Butterfly Hunt – Two old ladies live in tranquility in an old French château. Then their peaceful days are disturbed by the arrival of modernity, in the form of Japanese businessmen, heirs from Moscow, and other people interested in their property.

1996 Brigands, Chapter VII – One actor plays three different parts: a merciless medieval Georgian king who orders that his beautiful adulterous wife be beheaded, a pickpocket in 1930s Stalinist Georgia, and a Georgian bum wandering the streets of modern Paris … The clear message is that, despite the passing of time, nothing changes …

1999 Farewell, Home Sweet Home (In Vino Veritas)– While the son of a rich, eccentric family spends his days working as a dishwasher at a café and running about with bums, a poor train cleaner who lives in a hovel changes into a nice tweed jacket every morning after work, so as to borrow a Harley Davidson and seduce young girls.

2002 Monday Morning – A factory worker, alienated from his family and bored by monotonous village life, leaves his home for Venice, to seek adventure and enlightenment. “Everything in this sad comedy,” Ioseliani said, “is based on my experience. It is about the things I don’t like in this world. A person is born just for everyday routine and monotonous work, and he spends his whole life on this nonsense. I cannot bear to think this. That is why I wanted to create ‘a parabola’ about the tragedy of loneliness.”