In Bloom

The word “bloom” takes on many meanings in Georgia’s official entry for Best Foreign Language Film in the 86th Academy Awards, In Bloom. This is the directorial debut for Nana Ekvtimishvili and Simon Gross, with a coming-of-age story that follows 14-year-olds and inseparable friends, Eka and Natia, as they navigate growing up in the ’90s in the capital city of the newly independent Georgia. As the country teeters on the edge of war and bloodshed following the collapse of the Soviet Union, the two teens are surrounded by school, friends and family as they face issues of love and early marriage. The Daily Trojan spoke with the two filmmakers about the inspiration behind the story, the power of a female protagonist and more. In Bloom opens at Laemmle Theaters in Los Angeles tomorrow.

DT: What inspired you to direct this film?

Ekvtimishvili: I left Georgia in the ’90s and went to Germany to study. Everything in the film is related to my life at the time. Eka is the character that is very close to me. Natia’s character is also very close to me. A lot of the friends in the movie were extensions of my own friends. Natia’s feelings of revenge were very close to me because as a teenage girl, you don’t know if someone might hurt you or your friends. You are not able to reflect as an adult when you are still young.

DT: What challenges did you face while directing this movie?

Ekvtimishvili: The film is very personal for me, but on the other hand, if you create a character and if you write a script, this character has his [or] her own life. So you have also some kind of distance with the members of the film. Otherwise, you are not able to write or tell the story factually. During the writing, I had the feeling I was writing about some other person. To do this film, it helped me a lot to talk to Simon. What I see could be different from what Gross saw. I’m from Tbilisi, he’s from Berlin. Somehow we discovered some universal elements that were good for this film.

Gross: Well actually we were living in Berlin when I read the script for the first time. This was my first connection; of course I knew Ekvtimishvili already at the time. I felt a personal connection with Ekvtimishvili and the need to tell a story about a country I didn’t know. For the movie, we had questions about what time period this was, the political background, what costumes people wear. The script was very straight and characters were very emotional for me when I read the script. I had no problems connecting.

DT: There are not usually many female protagonists in movies. Why did you choose two female girls to lead the film instead of two young boys?

Ekvtimishvili: The reason is that I am also a woman, and it is connected to my personal experience. At the time, as you see also in film, there are two parts of society — also woman and man. When boys get together separately, this point of view from the woman is another view of happenings at the time. For men, the perspective is often from war or street fights. As a woman, you see other things because you are not really in a hot point. This is the view you want to share with others.

DT: Natia and Eka’s friendship serves as an escape from their own turbulent lives with their families. What were you trying to portray to viewers about friendship?

Ekvtimishvili: When you have a friend of the same age and has the same questions as you do, you are somehow addicted to this friendship. As you see, in both families there is no place for dialogue where people can tell each other how they feel and how they think. They don’t do this in an intellectual way. They do it very intuitively because they are from a very related nature. They have the same spirit. In the ’90s also, in my family and other families, we did not have time to even talk about things. There were so many problems — what we can do tomorrow, what we can eat tomorrow. Friendship is somehow where you can feel free.

Gross: In Natia’s family, there’s fighting all the time. In Eka’s family, the father’s not there all the time. For them, waiting in the breadline is something more interesting for them. Also in the school, there are the boys to talk about. This is a normal teenage topic to be excited about.

DT: Your film does not contain a continuous musical score. What was your intention in doing this? How do you think this impacts the viewer’s experience?

Gross: The main idea was to tell a story which really comes from the characters — to stay authentic. There was really no need for music because the film is about the two girls. It is about what they feel that can be transported. The signing scene is the same song as the one at Natia’s birthday and the one Lado’s friends are playing on the guitar.

DT: What differences in Georgia do you see?

Ekvtimishvili: The people are the same. This film portrays Georgia in the ’90s because that is when I was familiar with. Also today, we see many different types of problems — many involving politicians.

DT: It is surprising that Lado’s gift to Natia is a gun. As soon as he gives it to her, we are curious as to what she will do with it. What was the purpose of giving Natia the gun?

Ekvtimishvili: At the time, a gun was a big deal. A lot of people had it. It was even easy for teenagers to get a gun on the street. Anybody that had a gun was changed. They had the power to change something — to show you that they were powerful. They could kill someone or simply make you afraid. In the film, the girls do not use the gun. But when I wrote the script, I was not trying to think of some original, dramatic way to shoot it. The girls use this gun in their own way. It comes also from my personal experience. I mentioned my revenge feelings as a teenage girl. I think I decided at the time, if I did not have a gun, I could go another way. Yet, I tried to ignore my revenge feelings. I understood that it made no sense to act upon them.

DT: There was a defining moment in the film when two men equipped with weapons are able to cut the line at the bread station. What is the role of weapons in the movie?

Ekvtimishvili: At the time, there was a war in Georgia, and there were many military people. Many did not know what to think of the military. In general, though, there was a negative attitude toward military soldiers because they participated in a lot of criminal activity. Georgian people were robbing Georgians. People were very poor, and they had nothing to eat. In war, everybody shows their true nature. In this kind of situation, if you have power — if you have a gun — it separates you from other normal people. Soldiers were allowed to cut in line for bread — the message was that they did not have to wait if they were fighting a war. There was a big distance between normal people and military people. People were also afraid because those who had guns would pull the trigger over small issues. It was really unpredictable.

DT: Why did you decide to end the movie with the scene of Eka visiting her father?

Gross: This was a kind of decision that Eka could not do were she not Natia’s friend. Natia is the reason Eka goes to the prison to visit her father. Eka witnessed how easy it was to kill someone. Maybe she didn’t understand her father, but she was ready to listen. By the end of the film, she was ready to hear the truth.