Short and sweet, Tamar Shavgulidze’s Comets is one of the best films still seeking distribution at TIFF19.
Tamar Shavgulidze’s quiet, lovely Comets is a film about memory, missed opportunities, and lost loves. At just 71-minutes, it’s short and sweet, but packs an emotional punch thanks to strong performances from Nino Kasradze and Ketevan Gegeshidze as teenage sweethearts Irina and Nana, meeting for the first time in nearly 30 years. The pair talk around their past affair, gesturing at paths untaken, and immediately rekindle the intensity of their earlier relationship: the women sit forward in their chairs, mesmerized by each other.
They meet in Nana’s backyard, the same house she grew up in, haunted by the ghosts of their past selves. We see younger versions of the pair in flashback, playing cards, eating and talking in the same space, allowing us to share in their nostalgia and regret. The essential remain unspoken in Comets, but we and the women understand how much feeling there is between them, their physicalities doing the talking they aren’t able to.
Tamar Shavgulidze’s film, Comets, is still seeking distribution in the US and UK.
Comets screens 9/13 at 12:15 p.m. (Lightbox). Tickets here.