Once Upon a Time There Was a Singing Blackbird

Gia is a young percussionist in the Tbilisi Orchestra. His most important job is to hit the timpani at the beginning and the end of a concert. But he is more interested in unexpected encounters and meeting girls than in working for the orchestra. He spends his day running all sorts of errands, meeting friends, helping complete strangers, chatting, rushing around, and never finding time to finish anything, not even to write down the melody that is always playing in his head. Otar Iosseliani, who passed away last year, belonged to the golden age of cinema in Georgia. The director has said that this film shows how to live and how not to live, depending on who is watching - the film was banned by the Soviets in 1971 because of Gia's irrationality and its inconsistency with the ideals of being a Soviet man. However, Once Upon a Time There Was a Singing Blackbird was released at Cannes in 1974 and brought Iosseliani international acclaim.