Nikoloz Shengelaia

Nikoloz Shengelaia (Georgian: ნიკოლოზ შენგელაია, Russian: Николай Михайлович Шенгелая; Obudzhi, Tsalenjikha District 8 August [O.S. 26 July] 1903 – Tbilisi, 4 January 1943) was a Soviet Georgian film director.^[1]

Nikoloz Shengelaia was one of the founders of Georgian cinema. His epic 1928 silent film “Eliso” is about the exile of Circassian and Chechen people and the colonization of their land in the Caucasus Mountains by imperial Russia. The film has a broad range of themes such as betrayal, social injustice, and resilience in the face of adversity. The film's protagonist is a passionate and brave young woman. Nikoloz Shengelaia put Georgian cinema on the map with “Eliso.”^[2]

Nikoloz Shengelaia was married to the movie star, Nato Vachnadze, and their sons Giorgi Shengelaia and Eldar Shengelaia continued the family legacy by becoming prominent film directors in their own right, leaving their own indelible mark on Georgian cinema.

Selected filmography

• Giuli (1927)
• Eliso (1928)
• Twenty-Six Commissars (1932)
• The Golden Valley (1937)
• Motherland (1939)
• In the Black Mountains (1941)
• He Would Come Back (1943)

References

1. Peter Rollberg (2009). Historical Dictionary of Russian and Soviet Cinema. US: Rowman & Littlefield. pp. 620–622. ISBN 978-0-8108-6072-8.
2. "Independent Nation With Films to Match". The New York Times. 18 September 2014. Retrieved 22 February 2020.

External links

• Nikoloz Shengelaia at IMDb
• Nikoloz Shengelaia at the Georgian Cinema Database
• Photogalery on burusi.com