In Bloom + My Happy Family

Literature teacher Manana has been married for 25 years and lives in a three-bedroom flat in Tbilisi with her husband, parents, two adult children and her son-in-law. But on the evening of her 52nd birthday, she announces to the surprise of her family that she wants to leave. When she actually packs her suitcase and leaves, the family is shocked and incredulous: Where is she going? What is the reason for the decision? She is past the age for a divorce and has what everyone would call a good husband. But Manana sticks to her decision and does something unheard of in Georgia’s patriarchal society: She moves into a small apartment to live on her own.

Early ‘90s, in Tbilisi, the capital of the newly independent Georgia after the collapse of the Soviet Union. The country is facing violence, war on the Black Sea coast (Abkhazia) and vigilante justice that plague society. But for Eka and Natia, fourteen-year-old inseparable friends, life just unfolds—in the street, at school, with friends or Eka’s elder sister. Although they are already dealing with men’s dominance, early marriage and disillusioned love, for these two girls in bloom, life just goes on.