DEDE

REVIEWS

The Hollywood Reporter
By Stephen Dalton

“Feminism meets fatalism in this starkly beautiful Georgian melodrama.”

Variety
By Jessica Kiang

“An authentic, anthropologically fascinating if dramatically unsteady debut set in an isolated community in rural, mountainous Georgia”

Cineuropa
By Vladan Petkovic

“…attractive and intriguing.”

Chicago Reader
By Ben Sachs

“Director Mariam Khatchvani, who demonstrates a sure hand with actors and a taste for natural beauty.”

Film Threat
By Lorry Kikta

“Dede is one of the most beautiful portrayals of spiritual tradition, heartache, grief, and sacrifice I have ever witnessed.”

Battle Royale With Cheese
By Alex Secker

“Dede is a hard film to watch, and that’s not an accident. It isn’t that it’s violent or that it’s gruesome or that it’ll have you turning away from the screen at the horrors unfolding, it’s that it’s truth.”

Trust Movies
By Alex Secker

“Primitive, filmed in a beautiful location, and said to be based on a real-life situation taking place in 1988, as the Georgian Civil War began, DEDE, the 2017 film directed and co-written by Mariam Khatchvani, takes a number of unexpected turns, even as it purloins themes from Romeo & Juliet, the Sabine Women, and maybe every backwoods-set, honor-above-all-else, Eastern European/Eurasian movie ever made…First, the interesting performers: George Babluani, shown above, as our heroine’s first great love, a sexy, slow-burn guy who’s great at staring; Natia Vibliani as Dina (below, with child), the put-upon girl at the center of all the male wrangling; and literally all the supporting performers who seem equally adept and real….Secondly, the visuals here, thanks to the gorgeous locations, can often be breathtaking: There’s one scene in which villagers carry lanterns/torches in the night on one side of the screen, even as the salmon-colored sunset hits the peaks of the mountains on the other.”

Mama Likes This
By Valerie Mitchell

“This is a great movie to watch with someone else, so that you can discuss it together afterwards.”

Reviews by Amos Lassen
By Amos Lassen

“The roughness and beauty of the setting and the rawness of the aesthetics and the directing approach make “Dede” a fascinating film— attractive and intriguing. The obsolete customs that still persist today, where everything is about family honor and where a woman has no say in anything, including her own children’s fate, can make us very angry, but Khatchvani’s perspective ensures that the audience sees both the best and the worst.”

Shepherd Express
By Dave Luhrssen

“It’s a familiar scenario—two best friends in love with the same woman and she’s forced into marriage with the one she doesn’t love. The setting is unusual, a remote village in the Georgian Republic where family honor trumps love. The 2018 film by Mariam Khathvani is steeped in the age-old rituals of an unpoliced communitarian society where women in are kept in second place and violent emotion are hard to keep in check. .”

St. Bernards News (LA)
By Ed Held

“”Time to find the tissue box as you enter a world of “tradition, heartache, grief and sacrifice”.”

Cherry Hill Courier Post
By Amy Longsdorf

“The movie works as both a character study of a woman with very few options and a study of a region far removed from the modern world. Gorgeous cinematography and understated performances help turn “Dede” into a must-see.”

The LA Beat
By Paul Gaita

“a sobering look at stifling patriarchal traditions and the struggle by women to break free of them; it’s a decidedly unhappy picture all around…but as a look at a largely unknown region and its traditions – and a starkly beautiful location – “Dede” holds interest.”