Told with captivating simplicity, Géla and Temur Babluani's story of clashing moral prerogatives starts in midstride and never looks back. A Georgian interpreter, Nikolai takes a job translating for three French friends who come to visit a ruined castle one has inherited. Wielding video... [More]

Told with captivating simplicity, Géla and Temur Babluani's story of clashing moral prerogatives starts in midstride and never looks back. A Georgian interpreter, Nikolai takes a job translating for three French friends who come to visit a ruined castle one has inherited. Wielding video cameras, they board a bus for the two-day journey to the castle. Already full of local flavor (a mute man peddling canned food at inflated prices), the bus stops to pick up an old man, his grandson, and an empty casket. We soon learn they are traveling to the village of their enemy, where the grandfather will be killed to settle a longstanding blood feud. Warned not to interfere, the French decide to follow.

A breath of fresh air from beginning to end, The Legacy delights in pulling the rug out from under you. No sooner has a scene headed in one direction, than it wiggles off in another. Taking as much pleasure in the absurdity of the mountain folks' feud as in the French's well-intentioned moral arrogance, it settles on Nikolai, who is left to sort it all out.

Géla Babluani (13 Tzameti) teams up with his father, Temur, to fashion a film that simply never gets in its own way. It would be tempting to call it a parable, but the sublime irony of The Legacy is that nobody learns anything.
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