Rezo gigineishvili biography

- With his latest feature, Rezo Giginieshvili has something to say about the past, the present and the never-changing nature of power that cannot be given away

The early-to-mid 80s in the former Soviet Union were known as “the time of state funerals,” given that party leaders and heads of state were dying in quick succession one after another.

They were old when they “inherited” power and were basically the tools of a system that was running on fumes and powered by inertia. Georgian filmmaker Rezo Gigineishvili takes us back to that period of time with his newest feature Patient #1, which has just opened the official competition of this year’s Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival.

When we meet our protagonist, a nurse named Sasha (Olga Makeeva), her primary concern is to prepare her singing act for the nurses’ ball that is about to take place in the hospital.

Out of the blue, she is selected, interviewed by a high-ranking party member (Igor Chernevich