Neorealism and Georgian Cinema

Italian neorealist films were first screened publicly in the Soviet Union in the early 1950s due to the fact that they had affinity with the tenets of socialist realism. On the other hand Italian neorealist filmmakers acknowledged the contribution of the Soviet avant-garde filmmakers (Sergei Eisenstein, Vsevolod Pudovkin, Alexander Dovzhenko) to their cinematic vision. A significant example of the Italian neorealism impact on Georgian cinema may be found in Magdana’s Donkey (1955), the debut film of Revaz (Rezo) Chkheidze and Tengiz Abuladze.
Although more subtle and with more original features, one can detect neorealist influence even in Chkheidze and Abuladze second films, Our Yard (1956), respectively Someone Else’s Children (1958).