Hostages Dir: Rezo Gigineishvili

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Starring: Irakli Kvirikadze, Tina Dalakishvili

This true-life story of a group of idealistic young people determined to escape the suffocating oppression of Georgia under the Soviet Union is an action-thriller of the first order.

Based on the real hijacking of a Soviet airline in 1983, Georgian film director Rezo Gigineishvili brings this tragic event to life while reminding us why the Cold War was worth fighting.

From the very first scene, where a group of young people, frolicking in the Black Sea, are rousted out and sent home by armed police, we begin to understand how oppressive it must have been to have lived under Soviet rule.

These seven young adults, all from well-off families, all considered “doing well” by their adult peers, are still frustr5ated as they attempt to experience the things that we take for granted…a late-night swim, buying a Beatles album, going to church.

Yes, in this time and place, attending church was considered as rebellious as rock and roll.

The close-knit group of friends has decided to use the wedding of two of them, Nika and Anna, as an opportunity to escape to Turkey.

The plan, such as it is, is to acquire weapons on the black market, then smuggle them on the honeymoon flight from their hometown of Tbilisi to the resort town of Batumi, forcing the plane to take them to nearby Turkey.

Even before they arrive at the airport its clear these folks haven’t thought this through and the plan is doomed.

Gigineishvili does invite us in to experience what Georgian life was like back in the 1980s and the wedding scene is particularly wonderful with cinematographer Vladislav Opelyants’ tracking camera capturing the dizzying dancing.

But the really fine filmmaking happens on the plane.

The chaos, the confusion and the terror is captured in horrifying reality as shots fly and bodies are riddled with bullets.

The resulting trial scene is just as horrific, as the survivors learn their fate.

Giginneishvili has copped some criticism for not getting us into the heads of these young people, but I don’t find it to be a problem. The atmosphere he recreates is stifling and it quickly becomes clear why they are so desperate to escape.

Not that the hijackers are completely without blame. Their disregard for innocent lives on the plane is both startling and unnerving, leaving the viewer to be exposed to some hard truths about this affair.

Marty Duda

 

Marty Duda
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