The Plea

Tengiz Abuladze (1924-1994) graduated in theatre directing from the Rustaveli Theatre Institute in Tbilisi and in film directing from the Cinematography Institute in Moscow. He won his first award at the Cannes Film Festival in 1956 for the film Magdana's Donkey. Abuladze is best known for his trilogy The Plea (1967), The Wishing Tree (1976) and Repentance (1984). The trilogy philosophically reflects on good and evil, love and hate. The satire Repentance, despite its open criticism of Stalinist terror, was a great success in the Soviet Union and was shown abroad. Abuladze's work was influenced by Georgian folklore; his films are characterised by a poetic structure and the form of a philosophical parable.