A sequel to the iconic Soviet comedy film “Mimino,” a must-see for anyone with an interest in the Soviet Union, is in the can, according to a Russian news report. Georgian media mogul Zurab Chigogidze has acquired the rights to continue the story which captivated Soviet citizens in 1977.
The original movie follows the adventures of Valiko Mizandari, aka Mimino (falcon), a helicopter pilot carrying people and goats around in rural Georgia. He moves to Moscow to pursue his dream of flying the big time with Aeroflot. There, Mimino befriends an Armenian truck driver Rubik Khachikian, the movie’s comic-relief-in-chief, and the two simple men from the Caucasus, speaking an accented, faulty Russian, get entrapped in various misadventures in the USSR’s top megapolis.
The banter between Mizandari and Khachikian, played to a tee by Georgian actor and singer Buba Kikabidze and the late Armenian actor Frunzik Mkrtchian, also encapsulates the eternal rivalry between Georgians and Armenians. At one point, Khachikian claims that the Armenian town of Dilijan has the second-best water in the world. “And the best one is in Yerevan, right?” asks Mizandari, annoyed. “Nope, San Francisco,” responds Khachikian. Mizandari throws a fit because Borjomi, the Georgian mineral water of Soviet fame, is snubbed in the Armenian’s aqua hall of fame.
The sequel, tentatively entitled “Mimino - The Flight Continues,” is expected to hit theaters in 2017, Chigogidze told Russia’s Rambler News Service.
Chigogidze, the owner of several Georgian radio stations, said that he purchased the film rights from the Russian state-run film studio Mosfilm, as well as from the original screenplay writers (famed Soviet-era director Giorgi Danelia, Revaz Gabriadze and Viktoria Tokareva) and score composer (Giorgi Kancheli), and is now looking for the right director to make the sequel. He did not disclose the sums paid.
Yet the plans for a sequel have already been met with a degree of skepticism in Georgia. Doubts exist that any part two could do justice to the original.
Whoever is the new director, he or she will be taking over from the Tbilisi-born Giorgi Danelia, a Soviet cinema legend. Very few talented actors and directors still enjoy a popularity across the post-Soviet world similar to that of those who took part in Mimino.
The prime audience for the movie has changed much, too.
Mimino was a product of its time. It celebrated the cultural diversity of the Soviet Union, which has long been splintered into a place of deep-seeded mutual resentments and conflicting geopolitical loyalties.
"Mimino" has not been exempt from these changes. In 2009, the film's star, Buba Kikabidze, now 76, touched off outrage among many Russians with his song “You Disappointed Me” about Georgia’s past friendly ties with Russia.
Aside from this, Georgia has been on an uphill struggle to move away from Russian hegemony and shed the stereotypical image of a Georgian man speaking funny Russian and sporting a mustache and an oversized, flat-top cap.
Similarly, in 2009, Armenian director Robert Keshishian advised that filmmakers need to move away from Soviet films' stereotypical depictions of ethnic Armenians, including in "Mimino."
Whether the new "Mimino" can meet these objections, but still retain its humor remains to be seen.
Giorgi Lomsadze is a journalist based in Tbilisi, and author of Tamada Tales.
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