In Bloom

In Bloom is a 2013 Georgian drama film directed by Nana Ekvtimishvili and Simon Groß. It is a bildungsroman focused on the friendship between two teenage girls in 1992 after the country’s independence from the Soviet Union. The artistic style is influenced by post-communist Romanian cinema, particularly by cameraman Oleg Mutu, who also worked on 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (2007). The film premiered at the 63rd Berlin International Film Festival, winning the C.I.C.A.E. Prize. It was selected as the Georgian entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 86th Academy Awards. Plot Natia and Eka are two fourteen year old best friends living in Tbilisi in 1992 after Zviad Gamsakhurdia was deposed and during the Georgian Civil War. Natia is the more vivacious of the two girls, though she has an alcoholic and abusive father. Eka lives with her older sister and mother, while her father is in prison. Natia has two boys who are interested in her, Kote, and Lado. Lado tells her that he is going to Moscow to visit his uncle but, before he leaves, he gives her a gun with a single bullet. Natia is impressed, believing the gift is Lado's way of taking care of her. After witnessing Eka being bullied on her way home by two boys, Natia forces the gun on her and tells her to use it to intimidate the boys as violence is the only language they understand. However, walking home Eka sees two other boys beating up Kopla, one of the boys that bullies her. Initially intending to ignore the situation, she ends up using the gun to threaten the boys.