Synopsis
Falling Leaves (1966) is the debut feature of Georgian director Otar Iosseliani, well worth watching online on iFILM. A young graduate starts work at a Tbilisi winery and runs straight into the unwritten rule of the place: hitting the quota matters more than the wine, and keeping quiet pays better than arguing.
Niko is shy, easy to overlook, no kind of hero at all. Yet when he sees unfinished, spoiled wine being barreled for release, he refuses to sign off and stalls the whole batch. By the factory's measure it's nothing; by the measure of conscience it's everything. The film grows out of that one small act — colleagues shrug, bosses grumble, and you slowly realize none of this was ever really about wine. Ramaz Giorgobiani plays the lead.
Iosseliani shoots almost like a documentary: street-level Tbilisi, the vineyards, faces without makeup, irony where a lesser film would preach. This is where his name as one of Soviet cinema's most poetic authors began, and the picture drew notice at the Cannes Film Festival. Quiet, sharp filmmaking for anyone drawn to the Georgian school of the sixties. Stream Falling Leaves (1966) online on iFILM.
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