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Georgian writer-director Otar Iossehani, long based in France, looks at the fast disappearing world of European aristocracy in this enchanting and elliptical comedy.
Two elderly White Russian ladies are living in a chateau of more than decaying grandeur, full of memories and momentos. Vivacious and energetic, the women spend their days entertaining eccentric characters, trying to decipher news of the strange and disquieting modern times reported on their trusty Walkman, and admiring life as it passes. In the village adjacent to the their estate the ladies are very much revered by the locals but they cannot protect them from thieves, antique dealers or unscrupulous real estate agents The inevitable finally happens, leaving the estate unguarded against the greed of an unsympathetic era. Although some may take exception to the exact nature of the capitalist conquerors, Iossehani humorously depicts a world out of kilter and characters out of time, in the delightfully nutty manner we have come to expect from him following Favourites Of The Moon (MFF '84).