This rarefied but affecting documentary, very much in the Chris Marker essay-film tradition, is about nationhood, memory and the relationship between two friends – French film-maker Eric Baudelaire and subject-narrator Maxim Gvinjia, the former minister of foreign affairs for Abkhazia. This country on the Black Sea broke away from Georgia after a bloody civil war, and to this day is recognised only by Russia and a handful of other states. Baudelaire structures the movie around a series of letters he sent Gvinjia in the post, unsure if they would arrive due to Abkhazia’s ambiguous status and uncertain postal service. Gvinjia’s spoken responses narrate the film, recorded on tape because he couldn’t send physical letters back. You can’t help wondering if they couldn’t have just emailed each other, but still, Gvinjia’s plucky spirit and pragmatism is engaging throughout. Meanwhile, the accompanying images of the scruffy people, scuffed buildings and soft seaside light of Max’s homeland are evocatively shot, and hold a potent romantic allure for anyone with a soft spot for contemporary ruins and post-Soviet backwaters.
