The film is based on a real story of poetic love.
Who is Elene Dariani, a mystification by poet Paolo Iashvili or a woman who found herself in his shadow?
Even today, this question remains a topic of discussion in Georgia.
Two years ago my best friend and now the producer of the movie Sophio Chincharauli opened up a restaurant in Tbilisi, on Paolo Iashvili Street. The restaurant was named “Elene Dariani.” That is exactly when I stumbled across a book published by the Literature Museum, with the title of “Elene Bakradze-Dariani.” I bought two – one for myself and one for my friend, and we started reading it at the same time.
If we knew before that the pseudonym Elene Dariani had written many poems, and was a mystification of one of the most famous symbolism-genre poets, Paolo Iashvili, reading this book completely turned our mindsets upside down. Not just for me, but for the entire Georgian population. We found out about a woman, Elene Bakradze, who was in love with Paolo Iashvili for years on end. But their relationship never developed to a physical level. Not long after Elene met Paolo, her father arranged for her to get married to another man. In order for her to find peace through the love that never happened, her best friends became a pen and a paper. She always wrote about her feelings towards Paolo, who then turned the writings into poems, in the style of modern. Elene used to say that if her and Paolo had created a family, “Elene Dariani” would have never existed. This sentence became the biggest motivation for me to film an animation based on Elene Dariani. What power is held by true love. How can a love between two people lose its color and slowly create subliminal poems based on tortured souls. Poems that live on for centuries. Poems that help those who go through the same story, woman or man, so that they can feel seen and understood for at least a little bit. Poems that help people see that they’re not alone.
After reading the book, Sophio and I looked at each other and simultaneously decided to write a script and film an animation. An animation about a woman who is the main character of not only the 14 poems of “Elene Dariani,” but also our movie.
My goal was to show the viewer the story of how Elene Dariani was created, which is connected to the poems as well. This is why one of the bigger characters of the animation is a cat, the symbol of Paolo, that is always nearby Elene, even when she shares a bed with her husband. Their thirst to meet each other comes to life and they give in to lust. This is how the two wanted their story to go, based on their poems. In real life these dreams were only dreams.
Of course, the story of a woman who has a good friend as her husband, but her thoughts, the full moon and her cat never leave her alone, is a sad and tragic one. This sadness and pain was probably what I identified with the most, as well. And probably the reason as to why I decided to film an animation based on her story.
And at last, I think that the way our “Elene Dariani” became a metaphor for finding liberty from my feelings is the way that “Elene Dariani” helped Elene Bakradze and Paolo Iashvili.
