‘Otar’ a strong first feature

“Since Otar Left ...” is as delicate, precise and rich in nuance as those three dots that elegantly end its title. It’s a wonderful film with a love of intimacy, an eye for potent small moments that can go by unobserved and a willingness to explore the emotional complications of family relationships.

Director and co-writer Julie Bertuccelli’s success conveying the poignant interplay between three generations of women has won “Otar” the Grand Prize at Cannes’ Critics Week, three Cesar nominations (including best first film) and a strong reception at the last New York Film Festival.

Though this is her feature debut, Bertuccelli has an impressive background, including directing several documentaries and stints as assistant director to such formidable talents as Krzysztof Kieslowski and Bertrand Tavernier. She shares with both of them the welcome ability to create emotion on screen while using tact, intelligence and restraint.

The director also worked with Otar Iosseliani, from whom she likely got her character’s first name as well as a love for his homeland, the former Soviet republic of Georgia and its beautifully melancholy capital of Tbilisi, where the film is set.

It’s not just any Georgians “Otar” is concerned with, but a family of devoted Francophiles, a grandmother, daughter and granddaughter who speak the language fluently and live in an apartment where the plumbing and electricity don’t work too well but bookcases overflow with volumes imported from Paris so long ago they had to be hidden in crates when the Bolsheviks took over.

Eka, the matriarch of this family, has dreamed of Paris all her life but never gone there. As played by the remarkable 90-year-old Esther Gorintin, who began acting when she was 85, Eka owns the screen. She’s a fierce, peremptory force, a real-life character from “The Triplets of Belleville” who can distill a lifetime of determination and disdain into every piercing look and dismissive word.

The only soft spot in Eka’s heart is for her unseen son Otar, who has fulfilled his mother’s fantasy and gone to Paris to work, albeit illegally. His absence makes Eka dote on him even more, and she both depends economically on the money he sends her and lives psychologically for the periodic letters that are read aloud, read privately, saved and savored.

Naturally, this devotion causes friction with Eka’s other child, Otar’s middle-aged sister Marina (veteran Georgian actress Nino Khomassouridze), whose own husband died in Afghanistan. Her daughter, Otar’s twentyish niece, Ada (Dinara Droukarova), is often called on to smooth the waters between this bickering pair who’ve never outgrown the ability to drive each other crazy.

The relationship these three women share is beautifully encapsulated in the film’s wordless opening scene, apparently shot on the last day of filming when the actors really knew their characters. After Eka cannily picks out the best pastry in a coffee shop, Marina brazenly poaches major portions while her mother glares at her and her daughter looks on with quiet amusement.

Even with the money Otar sends from Paris, the three women lead a hand-to-mouth existence, with Marina scrounging in the trash for things to sell at a flea market and Ada taking whatever odd jobs she can find. One of the points “Otar” makes almost casually is how difficult life is in present day Georgia, a place that manages to combine the worst aspects of both the capitalist and socialist systems.

Suddenly, while Eka is out, a call comes from Paris with disturbing news about Otar. In an echo of “Goodbye, Lenin,” the decision is made not to tell Eka, a choice that turns out to have a gracefully complex series of ramifications that none of the three anticipates.

The stresses of this changed situation turn out to fall mainly on Ada, the watchful granddaughter, making her more aware of the frustrations and limitations of her own existence. She’s the one we worry about as she struggles wordlessly to find a way to construct a life for herself she can be happy with.

Working with excellent site-specific music and this trio of exemplary -- and exceptionally well-cast -- actresses, director Bertuccelli does a superb job of touching just the right emotional notes in recounting the consequences of deception and the importance of family.

We are stronger than we know, “Since Otar Left ...” tells us, more inventive and more resilient. Our common humanity, our shared sorrows and hopes, are what give this film its uncommon resonance and unexpected impact.

*

‘Since Otar Left ...’

MPAA rating: Unrated

Times guidelines: Discreet scenes of sexual activity

Esther Gorintin ... Eka

Nino Khomassouridze ... Marina

Dinara Droukarova ... Ada

Temour Kalandadze ... Tenguiz

A FrancoBelgian coproduction by Les Films du Poisson with ARTE France Cinema-Entre Chien et Loup-Studio 99, released by Zeitgeist Films. Director Julie Bertuccelli. Executive producer Yael Fogiel. Screenplay Julie Bertuccelli, Bernard Renucci, adapted Roger Bohbot. Cinematographer Christophe Pollock. Editor Emmanuelle Castro. Costumes Nathalie Raoul. Production design Emmanuel de Chauvigny. Running time: 1 hour, 42 minutes.

In limited release.