If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

If you like to be scared, if you like to laugh, and if you like to learn a thing or two at the movies, this absolutely cannot be missed.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

The acting in this movie is really good.

This film was absolute genius and, in my opinion, one of the best films produced in the 20th century. It is on par with films like the Seventh Seal and Schindler's List in terms of symbolism and philosophy. The only way one can not like this film is if one does not understand it- which is quite possible, if one is only haphazardly watching it and is not fully engaged, or is expecting the film to chew up the messages for you and give you something simple you can quickly take away without actually appreciating the movie- then this is the wrong film for you. In order to properly appreciate this film you have to engage in higher philosophical thought and reflect both on the lives of individuals of the Stalinist era as well as your own era, since this movie is timeless. It explores human nature at its basest level, and what causes humans to act in the ways they do.

At first sight it is movie of one actor. Axis of grotesque world, master of hideous mask, puppeteer of essence of every dictator, Avtandil Makharidze is great in this parable-satire about power and pure cruelty. At first sight it is movie of its director, result of need to confess events of dark years, to cry - king is naked ! - after a deep and large silence. At first sight it is a gray fairy -tale in which monster is killed by delivery of truth. A woman for who past is blood of present. A cake, an artist, ruins of existences, look of nephew, a trial. At first sight it is tale about Varlaam. In fact it is only a masterpiece.

Repentance is yet another pleasant surprise among the large number of great European films. Like in Greek tragedy destiny haunts and twists the lives of the characters with endless and unseen power.The only one who defied destiny with a demonic hubris during his entire lifetime was the tyrannical patriarch Aravidze,but even he is weak in the face of death.That is,only after he dies and his body is constantly spirited away from his grave by an unseen hand(a brilliant parallel to Lenin,king Arthur-who actually never dies,only sleeps awaiting the moment when he is reclaimed and re-called by the living,Garcia Marquez's symbol of the eternal tyrant,another patriarch,who lives over two hundred years or again the Greek tragedy,where the gods were pleased and the ritual fulfilled,only if the dead were buried with all the honors. Aravidze,a Georgian like Stalin,though only the mayor of a town,is a ruthless social climber(the way totalitarianism attracts social climbers like the flames attract moths),who gradually becomes an absolute master of the town's inhabitants.Besides Stalin,the character bears a striking physical resemblance to Hitler and his rise reminds much of Hitler's:he exhaled strong personal magnetism,enchanted with powerful(even if somewhat Machiavellian)speeches,and,the more he became cruel,the more a certain petty-bourgeois crust worshiped him. Other similarities include Beria,not only being also a Georgian but also the actor depicting Aravidze looking just like him and a black shirt in Mussolini style.Strange and fascinating combination between four of the 20-th century's most influential dictators. In an age resembling both fictional 1984 and real historical periods,Aravidze surrounds himself with all the status symbols of power like a nouveau rich or a mafia boss:cruel henchmen,tasteless amounts of wealth and luxury,a mechanism of self-marketing including the cult of personality and hysterical public feasts. But the ultimate victims of this dictator,among many nameless and countless innocents,will be his own family,which not long after his death will be extinguished,ironically the only innocent member of this flawed clan,his grandson paying for his ancestor's faults by shooting himself in an unexpected act of conscience during a party including lots of champagne and music by Boney M as an highly artistic and grotesque contrast of lavish,explosive gaiety versus his haunted&troubled mind(similarly to this,present generations were intoxicated with the feeling of guilt for communism,fascism or the holocaust,only for being the descendants of the guilty ones). The excessive use of marble does not suggest as much luxury,it rather creates a cold,unfamiliar mood similar to the futuristic,minimalistic settings in Russell's The Devils:a mechanized,haunting universe where humanity is doomed. The journey in the underworld reaches the same artistic level like Dante's inferno,Dali's paintings or T.S.Eliot's poetry.The ending if brilliant-the slow,long shot of the road reminds of the closing scene from Visconti's Gattopardo;like the old desolate streets and decaying baroque buildings of Palermo,this road is a reminder of universal frailty,often useless search for justice and repentance and the inevitability and strange fascination of death.

The action takes place in the USSR province of Georgia, today. Varlam Aravidze's funeral has been a very solemn ceremony. And yet, the very next day, his body is dug up and dumped into his son Avel's garden. Buried once again, the body is once again unearthed, as if this man's corpse was destined not to rest in peace. The culprit is soon found. Ketevan Barateli is dragged to court where a long flash-back shows us the persecutions her family had to endure under the dictator. He persecuted her father, her mother, who have since both disappeared and then Ketevan herself, with a cruelty sadistic and pervert.The trial brings to light the truth about a man who was but the mayor of a small town but whose personality and behaviour bring to mind both Mussolini and Hitler, as well as Stalin and Beria.Varlams Grandson commits suicide when he discovers the truth about his grandfather and denial of everything by his father.And still the dictator's corpse cannot rest in peace...Varlam & Avel Aravidze is played by Avtandil Makharadze. Brilliant performance - one of the best dictator faces ever done.