That Is How Motherhood Works

Manana (Ia Shugliashvili) is a beautiful, middle-aged teacher who decides not to buy dill for her mother. This small act of defiance at an outdoor market in Tbilisi is a turning point in Manana’s life-a rare bid for happiness and the opportunity to hear her own thoughts above the din of her clamorous, tightknit family. Directors Nana Ekvtimishvili and Simon Groß paint an exquisite tableau of Manana’s raucous intergenerational kin: husband Soso, who has a few secrets; philosophical father Otar; loud mother Lamara; son Lasha, who drinks out of containers in the fridge; and daughter Nino, who is desperately trying to get pregnant. Beautifully shot, this often-comic drama opens with Manana renting an apartment where she can live alone. The motivations for this radical undertaking on the part of a Georgian mother are partially obscured, but who among us has not dreamed of walking out, leaving our lives and our many roles behind for a chance at happiness?

Manana (Ia Shugliashvili) is a beautiful, middle-aged teacher who decides not to buy dill for her mother. This small act of defiance at an outdoor market in Tbilisi is a turning point in Manana’s life-a rare bid for happiness and the opportunity to hear her own thoughts above the din of her clamorous, tightknit family. Directors Nana Ekvtimishvili and Simon Groß paint an exquisite tableau of Manana’s raucous intergenerational kin: husband Soso, who has a few secrets; philosophical father Otar; loud mother Lamara; son Lasha, who drinks out of containers in the fridge; and daughter Nino, who is desperately trying to get pregnant. Beautifully shot, this often-comic drama opens with Manana renting an apartment where she can live alone. The motivations for this radical undertaking on the part of a Georgian mother are partially obscured, but who among us has not dreamed of walking out, leaving our lives and our many roles behind for a chance at happiness?