xelovnebaTmcodneobiTi etiudebi STUDIES IN ART CRITICISM I

Oliko Zhgenti
Revolutionary Issue of the Movie of Ivane Perestiani “Arsen
Jorjiashvili” (Assasination of the General Griaznov).
Summary
The article examines political and esthetical aspects of the movie “Arsen
Jorjiashvili” (“Assassination of the general Griaznov”) by famous film
director Ivane Perestiani. The movie was released in 1921 when Georgia’s
occupation by the soviets took place. Right away the critics claimed the
movie to be the first Soviet historic-revolutionary one. In spite of such an
assessment, the author makes a new cultural evaluation of the movie from a
contemporary scientific-historic perspective and in contrast with the spread
opinion makes a conclusion that the movie contains a strongly seen
antirevolutionary spirit and thus is weakly subjected to the ideology of
Bolshevik set-ups. The idea of the movie was born during Independent
Democratic Republik’s times of Georgia. Judging from this the movie clearly
reflects the policy of a sovereign Republic and the negative evaluations of the
revolutionary past rather than the Soviet Bolshevik establishment.
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