Movie Review: In Bloom [2013] - Oscar Watch

In Bloom is a Georgian submission on Oscars. Movie's original title literally translates as "Long Bright Days" and tells a story of two young best friends during early years of Georgian independence in 1992. Story of these two girls expose problems of our society which most of Georgians still face nowadays: domestic violence, ignorance, struggle between generations of parents and children.

Eka & Natia are two teenagers living in extremely violent society, where you have no chance to find justice, or somebody to support you, even your family. This is war going inside of families and outside of them and mostly because grownups (parents) are not capable of dialing their lives. Sadly, their children get more harmed than they do. It is time when boyfriends give guns to their girlfriends, instead of some fluffy gifts, to ensure that they are safe, when underage boys can beat to death anybody they wish and when nobody cares if somebody gets killed in front of them. It's a story of massive ignorance of actions that are believed to be immoral, at least, today.

In Bloom clearly shows deconstruction of functional society, how they accept violence on a daily bases - at schools, in the street, in the families. 90s is a period when children started not to understand their parent because they can not live with the mistakes adults have made, so the whole film is about kids asking for answers which they never get, because there is no one to answer.

I liked the movie, as a Georgian. I mean, it is close to me, very understandable since I am familiar to every and each fact it talks about. But the problem is that it seems to be made only for Georgian, because I can't imagine anybody outside my country fully realize the whole drama films is trying to tell. And this is because In Bloom kind of lacks emotional depth. There is a scene when Natia, who's 14, is kidnapped by a guy, who's in love with her, and raped by him and later forcing her to marry. Having no choice, she does so, despite loving another guy from school. It is the biggest drama, since it's been a very common situation in Georgian life, lots of young girls have experienced the same and everybody (still) are accepting this on the moral or law bases. But, unfortunately, movie does not make this scene that much dramatic, it actually "skips" the whole trauma, which I found very irritating. If directors wanted to make other people understand why Natia's life was ruined, they should have made this more emotional, personal and clear.

Natia trying to protect herself from violator husband

What I enjoyed very much, is cinematography. Georgian films mostly lack a good camera work, but In Bloom had very spectacular colors & beautiful shots. Main characters, who have received numerous festival awards, did brilliant acting job. They were best in delivering true feelings & emotions of their lives. But I think, there was much more directing work to do, that'd make film even more tense and interesting.

Oscar chances? It won't make it, unless Academy wants to have Georgian film in final five (which won't happen). Mostly because it does not deliver relevant story, story which can be understood by anybody and not only by those, who've experienced it. This is a reason, why I give it 6 out of 10, it is too local and I want that Georgian directors to start filming more "international" movies.