In Bloom

Director: Nana Ekvtimishvili and Simon Groß
Year Released: 2013
Rating: 0.5

In Georgia (circa 1992), friends Eka (Lika Babluani) and Natia (Mariam Bokeria) have to contend with poverty, waiting in line for bread, violent males and unsupportive families amidst oppressive conditions. Aside from wallowing in the atmosphere of run-down apartments and discontent, this has little to offer as a political statement about life post-Soviet Union nor about 'blooming' womanhood - these girls sneak smokes, rifle through their parents belongings and cannot stop looking downtrodden. A weary slog, and the gun that gets introduced in act one ends up being chucked into a pond: so very anti-climactic indeed (and not what Chekhov would have recommended).