Avtandil Makharadze: I don't know who this actor is, I don't even know how to really pronounce his name, and I've never seen another movie with him, but his double performance in 'Repentance' is one of the most brilliant displays of acting I've ever seen. He could blow away some of the great American actors. I kid you not!! This is a performance for the ages. I tip my hat and give a standing ovation.
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Agreeeed!!!
I would recommend "Vne" (great acting as well but hard to get movie) and "Seobe" (superb cast, hard to get as well but I've seen it on some of the trackers).
The fact that Makharadze played BOTH parts -- father and son -- and created two entirely distinctive characters for each is itself astonishing. I didn't realize that it was the same actor until near the end of the film. He even seemed to have transformed himself physically. This kind of performance is known as a tour de force, and this film should be more widely available.
There, daddy, do I get a gold star?
And duly note that he is not simply portraying a Stalin figure.
Varlam Aravidze is an amalgamation of Stalin, Hitler, Mussolini, Beriya, and an antichrist figure, and the entire history of tyranny and oppression itself, and Makharadze channelled all of them and all of history with unchartered tour-de-force withcraft.
Makharadze travelled trance-like between Tophet and Edenville in the blink of an eye, he was the physical incarnation of Shakespeare's Sonnet 66 (which he quoted), he was wicked and remorseless and remorseful and upright (Varlam ended his life as the beloved mayor), he was everything (because he dominated everything) and nothing (Aravidze means nothing), he was the father and the son (and as the son he confronts himself, in character, during multiple epiphanies) and the holy spirit that kept a stranglehold on the past and present and future, he delivered one the greatest male performances ever.
The entire film is one of the greatest films ever crafted.