What are cinema’s role and artistic telos? Is it to portray the reality or create an alternative surreal medium that makes reality to be faded completely. Georgian director, Levan Koguashvili, responds to this dilemma with another of his powerful neorealist drama, Brighton 4th. The film is produced in an international collaboration, scripted by Latvian Boris Frumin, who collaborated with the director on Street Days and Blind Dates and respected cinematographer Phedon Papamichael. The story of the film takes place in Tbilisi and Brighton Beach in the Bronx. It brings to the silver screen the torments of a devoted father Kakhi (Levan Tediashvili), searching and sacrificing to save his only son Soso (Giorgi Tabidze), and his uncertain future.
The film dissects many issues. It meditates on the family dynamic and father-son relationship in particular. Levan Koguashvili shows this aptly in early scenes by shedding light on Kakhi in the sports bar, his temperaments, and his love for her injured wife. Kakhi’s achievement in wrestling is shown in the early sequences and frames. In addition, his camera brings the viewers to better understand behind the four walls of Kakhi’s house and Tbilisi streets and shops. In doing so, Khaki is more than a father figure, a character whose qualities may represent a nation.
Interestingly, the bridge to Brighton is first shown mediated through technology. Soso is seen connecting with his father, who later visits him there. This role of technology is ambiguous, as the final scene of Kakhi’s death illustrates; on the one hand, it brings the family together, though it does not fill the emotional gap and longing for the loss of loved ones.
The rest of the film takes place in Brighton in the U.S. The main storyline is the abysmal state in which Soso has put himself, 14,000 debt he incurred, and the shame he brings to Kakhi once he gets to know it. This part is resolved when Kakhi wrestles despite old age so that he can clear his son’s debt. His death is rather shocking and a climax but a significant part of the drama that makes the story tragic and at the same time heroic. In his attempt to help his son, Kakhi is selfless to do what he can. He goes to take care of the elderly couple and leaves after seeing his values seemingly trampled. His efforts are noble but take place in a neighborhood in which many deeds go wrong. Soso is depicted to be tangled in a gambling network that has destroyed his life. He has Lena, who supports her emotionally, but she is a mess too, and he needs a miracle to change his situation. The dialogues in these scenes are powerful and punchy. The audience could easily cry in the scenes in which Kakhi is about to die, holding hands and exchanging with his embattled son. It seems from Koguashvili’s perspective, Brighton is not a neighborhood for anyone to grow. Soso is a lost character, as are the hotel workers who are unpaid by Kazakh swindlers. The American Dream is an illusion for the likes of Soso, whose parents dreamed of something different than back home.
The film also comments on immigration and the lives of many marginalized ex-soviet immigrants in America. Soso and Lena are the best examples. They want to get married but have nothing to rest their lives. The other characters as Sergo (Kakhi Kavsadze), seem to be carrying old lifestyles, confined to small rooms, speaking Russian only with no signs of integration. The Kazakh manager who cheats and sends home money to pay for his family members’ cancer and epileptic hotel hostess who are unpaid for months are others who reinforce the notion of Brighton cut off from the rest of America. In a sense, Koguashvili critiques their state of affairs and their logic of taking refugees to this place. Father’s journey to see/save his son ends tragically despite his resort to his strength wrestling because no place is home and no sacrifice as Kakhi’s ultimate care can salvage it.
Koguashvili Brighton 4th is not an easy-to-watch drama for everyone. It evokes many emotions which can resonate with fathers, sons, and other family members. Its realism is bleak and untarnished, and it achieves the goal of telling a story as tragic and majestic at the same time. Professional and non-professional casts acting are the main highlights and music, editing, and mise-en-scene conveyors of the sense of humanity, divide, and tragic loss. The film will be screened soon at the Tribeca film festival, a must-see for its potent doses of humanism, humor, and dramatic unembellished realism.
Score: A-
© 2021. UniversalCinema Mag.