A Chat With Géla Babluani...

Géla Babluani is a 26-year-old Georgian-born first time director. His film 13 (TZAMETI) demonstrates an exciting talent for creating an atmosphere of threatening mystery and powerful psychological violence. FilmExposed’s Talha Burki had a quick chat with him…

The premise for Tzameti is very disturbing, the only other film I can recall with a similar theme is The Deer Hunter (1978), was this an inspiration?
Not really, since I’ve seen the film only afterwards.

Man playing games with other men's lives, a critique of the ruling class?
I just wanted to point out that there are two types of human beings: those who manipulate and those who are manipulated, then social differences can be associated.

Tzameti is a despairing piece; do you think this is a reflection of growing up in the former Soviet bloc? Good old fashioned Slavic nihilism?
No, but I’m closed to soviet films for whom images are really important. I’ve made a part of the editing with no sound at all, because when the impact of the images can support the film, the sound will enhance it.

Why did you choose to film in black and white?
There are stories that can only be seen in colour or in Black & White and this film needed Black and white. We concentrate better on the characters; the atmosphere of the film is therefore more evident.

Was it significant that the lead character Sebastian was a young, impoverished immigrant? Almost as if he was ripe for corruption?
The fact that he was young made the character look more innocent, that’s why I needed him to be young. There was no political meaning about his lack of money or his statute of immigrant. It was only supposed to be details to serve the character.

Talha Burki