The Wishing Tree
Thu 01 OctThe 2026 London Georgian Film Festival opens with Tengiz Abuladze’s 1976 masterpiece, The Wishing Tree, which was a massive critical success in the West, praised for its striking visual allegory and poetic atmosphere. It is the middle part of Abuladze’s acclaimed philosophical trilogy, starting with The Plea (1967) and Repentance (1984).
Abuladze weaves 22 episodes into a spectacular mosaic of village life set in pre-revolutionary Georgia, based on the writings of Giorgi Leonidze. The main narrative focuses on the love affair of the beautiful Marita who returns to the village and falls in love with a poor villager, Gedia, but her relatives and village elders force her to marry a man she does not love. Marita and Gedia reunite to tragic consequences and ritual disgrace and sacrifice.
Special Screening
The film will be preceded by a special performance of Georgian folk dance Jeriani and introduced by Nana Janelidze, a leading director and screenwriter, who worked with Abuladze on Repentance, and became a lifetime collaborator and his daughter-in-law.
Her 2011 film Will There Be a Theatre Up There? was screened at the 2013 London Georgian Film Festival.
See also