By Alex Deleon for filmfestivals.com
On Bastille Day, July 14th, I caught up with two off-beat Georgian features at the Big red Hall in Kino Moskva.
The first, “Magic Mountain” (by Mariam Chachia and Nik Voigt)was a documentary about a remote Tuberculosis Asylum in the mountains of Eastern Georgia. Director Mariam Chachia, was herself a TB patient here many years ago when, under Soviet domination it was shameful to be burdened with this highly contagious disease, and felt it was finally time to talk about it now.
The edgy cinematography by Irish German collaborator Nik Voigt reveals a bleak white building with stark bare floors and unadorned white walls wherein reside a collection of terminal, or near terminal TB victims who gradually form a tight sub society. Much of the film focuses on their uneasy relations with the hospital staff and the members of the staff itself. Doing their best to keep their charges alive.
Along the way we find out that this building was originally a villa built by the last member of the Russian Romanov dynasty when, on a trip to India, he was told of this “magic mountain” where his own TB could be cured. His cure was achieved there but at the age of 28 he was kiiled in a bicycle accident.
This is hardly an uplifting film emotionally but it focuses on the need to deal with
Unpleasant old memories in an unflinching way. The relatively short running time of 73. Minutes seems twice that long because of the density of the events recounted.
