Rezo lives in a retirement home. One morning, while reading the newspaper’s obituary section, he decides to attend a funeral of somebody he doesn’t know. He attends the vigil, helps carry the cask to the cemetery together with other men and participates in the kelekhi, the banquet after the funeral. The tamada, or master of ceremonies, toasts numerous times in honor of the deceased interrupting the guests who have mostly –such as Rezo – attended only for the free food.

The main character of Wake Man might be the dance instructor that starred in Georgian director Tornike Bziava’s first short film, The April Chill (2010). In fact, both characters are played by the same actor, Rezo Chanishvili. The April Chill tells the story of a bloody event that took place in Tbilisi on the 9th of April of 1989 when Soviet troops suppressed a peaceful protest and killed 21 innocent people. One of the soldiers responsible for the massacre runs into a child, a musician and a dance instructor in a dilapidated building while following the demonstrators. He observes the three of them while they carry on their dance class in spite of his presence.

In the medium-length film Wake Man, Rezo is a retired dance instructor and, during the kelekhi, one of his ex-students immediately recognizes him: “He taught me how to dance while our country was at war.” The men sitting close to him at the table toast in his honor, instead of toasting for the deceased man.

Art finds a way among human misery and death in Bziava’s film-making, and the Georgian director is just starting off his career.

Tornike Bziava was born in Tbilisi, in 1980 in a family of theatre and film directors. Bziava studied languages and literature as well as interpretation and direction. His mentioned first short film received the Special Jury Mention at the Clermont-Ferrand film festival in 2010.

Wake Man is part of the Official Section of the 9th edition of the International Medium-length Film Festival that will take place at the Filmoteca of Valencia from the 3rd to the 13th of November.

WAKE MAN | Tornike Bziava · Georgia · 2015 · 30 min