foreign tourists who are sitting by a camp-fire up in the mountains. There he is with a servile smile on his face, teaching them Georgian melodies. 'Swim r the film urges. 'Each person must have his own decisive heats ! One must not stop or limit oneself to the vulgar banality of a humdrum existence.' The grandson is floundering. Where will this lead him ? How long will his strength last ? That is not all that important. What matters is to take the first step. This director too has something to say about the enticing aspect of the 'festival of life'. But it is not easy to attain and that is the main thing. One has to be worthy of it and be up to it. That which only yesterday was taken for granted as a normal, natural gift to all for their happiness is today possible only through great and concerted efforts of both mind and body. This tallies with the psychological climate in our society today. The need for restructuring the entire system of management and putting it on a war footing has underlined, as never before, the importance of self discipline, inner self confidence — a type of cleansing of the soul. Under these conditions, the primordial, festive, pompous and highly romantic mood, despite everything, smacks of infantilism and bears the seeds of parasitism. Coming back to Eldar Shengelaya's remarkable film Blue Mountains with which I began my musings, its greatness lies in the fact that although it turns to the seemingly familiar devices and poetics of Georgian cinema as also to absurd comedy, it actually takes up some of the most burning issues of our spiritual experience. This hard hitting social criticism lashes out at a life of complacency and a system based on mutual compromises which cross all bearable limits. In the coming year (1986) Joseph Chkhaidze hopes to complete his six year-old project—a series of seven semi-documentary, semi-feature films about a popular old men's choir. Alexander RekhviashvilFs new film is nearing completion. Irakli Kvirikadze's shooting is going on at full swing. And then there is a host of young talent — Vakhtang Babluani, Geno Chiradze, Sergei Kasrashvili. . . . . we can expect a lot in the very near future from Georgian cinema. Translated by Shipra Ghosh & Kalpana Sahni 50 Numbers 12-13