A long-standing dispute between two families comes to a strange resolution in this offbeat drama. Celine (Olga Legrand) is a twenty-something woman from Paris who receives word that she has inherited an aging castle in the Georgian village of Tblisi. Curious about the estate that's now hers, Celine and her friends Patricia (Sylvie Testud) and Jean (Stanislas Merhar) travel to Georgia to give it a look, but getting there proves difficult, and they're forced by circumstance to make most of the
trip by bus. Sharing the bus with them are an elderly man (Leo Gaparidze) and his grandson (Giorgi Babluani), who are carrying a coffin with them. Celine and her friends learn that the coffin is empty, but won't be for long -- as part of a truce between two families who have been feuding for centuries, the old man has agreed to be executed by members of the enemy clan. At once appalled and fascinated, Jean wants to tag along and capture the grim event on film, but the journey turns out to be more dangerous than expected, and matters take an unexpected turn when the grandfather dies of natural causes before he can be hanged. L'Heritage (aka The Legacy) was a collaboration between two award-winning filmmakers, Gela Babluani and his father Temur Babluani. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
Father and son Georgian filmmakers take an intriguing look at the collision between new and old, east and west in their home country. The film is colourful and almost shockingly vivid, with a refreshingly foreign feel that's thoroughly accessible.
Laced with subtle comedy, Legacy is certainly an affectionate, oddball look at the lives of small town Georgians, but the meandering story, and it's surprisingly simple pay off, is not quite satisfying enough to make it all worthwhile.
An air of inevitability punctuates the picture and the lives of the lead characters are under-explored as the directors' focus on tourist ignorance of cultural differences at the expense of any real tension.
A deftly blended melange of European styles, from the wide-open vistas reminiscent of Russian cinema to moments of intimate absurdity echoing Antonioni.
Two Americans (Sam Elliott and Katharine Ross) are guests at an old English mansion, where a strange set of events are taking place. A group of powerful individuals are gathered at the estate to receive their inheritance from a dying demonic host. Those who receive the legacy will suffer horrible deaths throughout.
There are great scenes with an evil nurse, a mysterious cat, a clawed hand, viscious guard dogs, a dinner scene death, a burning man, and a scalding shower. Escape from the place is not an easy option. Slow-moving, but Patrick McNee and Roger Daltrey are there to entertain with their deaths. It's tame for the most part.
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