The day after the funeral of Varlam Aravidze, the mayor of a small Georgian town, his corpse turns up in his son's garden. Although it is secretly reburied, the corpse keeps returning until the police capture the local woman who is responsible. This woman says that Varlam should never be laid to rest since his Stalin-like reign of terror led to the disappearance of her family and friends.
Nominated for 1 Golden Globe. Another 11 wins & 1 nomination.
Top Critics Reviews
rotten:
The result is neither as minatory nor as moving as it thinks it is, despite some arresting surrealist images and the performance of Makharadze as Varlam.
– Tony Rayns,
Time Out,
26 Aug 2014
fresh:
Tengiz Abuladze's dreamlike allegorical fantasy about Stalinism, as well as despotism in general, is probably the best known and almost certainly one of the best Soviet films to have surfaced as a result of glasnost.
– Jonathan Rosenbaum,
Chicago Reader,
26 Aug 2014
rotten:
Its significance as a social and historical document far outstrips its value as art.
– Hal Hinson,
Washington Post,
26 Aug 2014
rotten:
Repentance would seem mordantly funny if its wit, like that of its central character, weren't also so cruel.
– Janet Maslin,
New York Times,
26 Aug 2014
fresh:
[Repentance] is lit with bursts of satiric humor, with music, bits of opera and great flights of surreal imagery, which only serve to intensify its growing horror. And it is never less than physically gorgeous.