Levan Koguashvili - georgian film director of 'Blind Dates' has come to Sofia

In  his movie  'Blind Dates' Levan Koguashvili is telling a simple but very powerful story about two best friends since childhood, history teacher Sandro (Andro Sakhvarelidze) and former soccer player-turned-coach Iva (Archil Kikodze) teach at the same school, and both find themselves still single on the brink of 40. As a result, they’re having a blind double date with two ladies who have bussed in from the provinces, though only high-strung Lali (Marika Antadze) turns up, her absent friend (Sopho Shaqarishvili, who later has a striking scene with Kikodze) being under the weather. As Iva takes a powder, the remaining duo spend a most awkward brief while together, agreeing (rather bafflingly) to meet again the following weekend.

Sandro doesn’t mention this interlude to the parents (Kakhi Kavsadze, Marina Kartcivadze) he still lives with, despite the fact that they are forever bemoaning his lack of marital status. When he and Iva borrow their car to spend a weekend by the seaside, the folks insist on riding along to visit relatives. They’re infuriated further when the two younger men blow a chance to socialize with some eligible local women in order to idle away an afternoon with a met-by-chance pupil, Anna (Liza Jorjadze), and her mother, Manana (Ia Sukhitashvili). Manana is clearly interested in Sandro, and vice versa. The problem is Anna’s father, Tengo (Vakho Chachanidze), who’s currently in prison (not for the first time), but is getting out shortly.

To Manana’s mortification, a few days later, semi-accidental circumstances lead to Sandro driving the reunited couple back to the city from the penitentiary gates. Then Tengo — who hasn’t a clue about this new friend’s ties to his spouse — uses him as a driver while immediately getting back to the business of hustling not-so-legal deals. Fate’s serpentine path quickly alters the prospects of all principals, though finally it’s Sandro’s own noble if self-sacrificing decisions that have the greatest, invariably positive influence. “You are a good man,” Manana tells him at the end, and rarely have those words carried such touching weight.