Leading Georgian filmmaker Nana Jorjadze (also known as Nana Djordjadze and Nana Dzhordzhadze) made her third feature film with 27 Missing Kisses (2000). She began her career as an architect until 1974, when she studied at the State Theater Institute in her native Tbilisi. Jorjadze later worked as an actress before becoming a director, winning the 1987 Caméra d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival for her film My English Grandfather. Her 1996 film A Chef in Love earned the distinction of being the first Georgian film to be nominated for an Academy Award. 27 Missing Kisses was filmed between August and November 1999 under the working title of Summer, which Jorjadze co-wrote with her husband Irakli Kvirikadze. It is a coming-of-age film in which a wild 14-year-old girl, Sybill (Nutsa Kukhianidze) spends the summer in the former Soviet Union visiting her aunt in her boring country town. There, she causes all kinds of trouble and gets a crush on middle-aged widower Alexander (Evgeniy Sidikhin) while his teenaged son Mickey (Shalva Iashvili) falls hard for Sybill. Also in the cast are Pierre Richard, Amaliya Mordvinova and Levan Uchaneishvili (also known as Levani), who would win a Best Supporting Actor at the Stozhary International Actors Film Festival. The film would be nominated and win several awards, including Best European Feature at the Brussels European Film Festival in 2001. The nation of Georgia would honor the film by naming it as their official submission for consideration as Best Foreign Language Film for the 73rd Academy Awards.
by Lorraine LoBianco
SOURCES:
27 missing kisses (2000). (2000, October 26). IMDb https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0246405/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_1
Georgian filmmaker honoured for contribution to world cinema. (n.d.). Agenda.ge. https://agenda.ge/en/news/2015/558
McCarthy, T. (2000, May 15). 27 missing kisses. Variety. https://variety.com/2000/film/reviews/27-missing-kisses-1200462304/#!
Osborn, J. (n.d.). British Georgian society. British Georgian Society. https://www.britishgeorgiansociety.org/films/Events/12-future-events/67-a-chef-in-love-1996-nana-jorjadze-5th-july-2012
