Blackbird Blackbird Blackberry review – visually striking and wonderfully acted Georgian midlife drama

When in 2019 Emma Watson described herself as “self-partnered,” rather than single, she was met mostly by a waft of gentle mocking. Although some, particularly women, found her rugged independence inspiring, virtually all of us agreed that her uber-modern understanding of spinster life was, well, pretty bourgeois.

Step forward Etero (Eka Chavleishvili) in Blackbird Blackbird Blackberry, a 48-year-old shopkeeper in rural Georgia, who arrives at a similar self-sufficiency without all the time to reflect. Mocked by friends for her lowly status and an apparent willingness to function alone, Etero gets by just by getting by. But a charged encounter with a buff delivery man, Murman (Temiko Chichinadze) activates something in Etero, and informs her that there’s more to life than the walls we build to protect ourselves.

It helps that Murman is a kind of Vincent Lindon of the Caucuses, a paternal man-bear with a glint in his eye. He isn’t the only thing to look leaps and bounds better than we might’ve expected: visually Blackbird Blackbird Blackberry is, at times, quite breathtaking. Director Elene Naveriani (Wet Sand) and cinematographer Agnesh Pakozdi (who camera-operated on Brandon Cronenberg’s Infinity Pool) conspire to show us the mundanity of Etero’s life via neon hotel lobbies, thunderous grey river currents and the pastelly, if bare, interior of her store. Blackbird Blackbird Blackberry is based on a celebrated 2020 novel which has since been translated into French and German. Not to minimise the work involved in adapting even a great piece of work, Naveriani seems to have had time to think about how to creatively illustrate Blackbird Blackbird Blackberry without it ever becoming style-over-substance.

It’s also worth stating that, at this point in a film festival, a screening early in the morning at one of Cannes’s less comfortable auditoriums might not hold the audience’s attention for too long. Not by any sound or fury, Blackbird Blackbird Blackberry is up to the challenge. We want to know what will happen to Etero. Even as the film’s plot meanders a touch in the middle before a strong ending, her fate and future happiness are remarkably enticing.

If last year’s Cannes highlight Aftersun and Joachim Trier’s brilliant Oslo, August 31st are stellar examples of films about people struggling to cope, Blackbird is about a woman who does, despite a formidable set of obstacles. Etero’s friends-cum-employers are cruel and shallow. Her business merely plods along and, shock, the men in her life are all a bit of a letdown, or worse. These experiences seem to have strengthened her willpower, which is tested by a few more cruel moments and useless men.

In moments it reminded me of work by Paweł Pawlikowski, who with Ida and Cold War told reasonably simple stories with the stylishness of a Renaissance painter. Blackbird gets pretty close to that. It’s also no surprise that Eastern Europe is home to some of the world’s most celebrated film schools and a cinematography film festival to boot. Blackbird is yet another example of the region’s adeptness in making films look needlessly good. Its script is strong and its acting stellar, sometimes wonderful. But its visuals are a knockout; they should make the decision about seeing it for you.

Blackbird Blackbird Blackberry was screened as part of the Cannes Film Festival 2023. A UK release date is yet to be announced.