In Bloom – Two Young Girls Growing up in Tbilisi
NYtimes review In Bloom Coming-of-Age in Wartime
Film Comment In Bloom – Nana Ekvtimshvili and Simon Gross
Georgian Filmmaker – Nana Ekvtimishvili
The debut feature from Georgian filmmaker Nana Ekvtimishvili, In Bloom, is a powerful coming-of-age story that takes place in in 1992, just after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Shot in Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia, it’s about two 14 year-olds, Eka (Lika Babluani) and her best friend Natia (Mariam Bokeria) whose ordinary lives—school, friends, domestic strife—are set against the sudden changes to the social order of the country as well as a backdrop of war in the Abkhazia region. Ekvtimishvili, who attended film school in Potsdam- Babelsberg, Germany, wrote the script based on personal experiences, and co-directed it with her German husband, Simon Gross.