Mickey who narrates the story is in love with Sibylla. Sibylla is the central character of this film. She is a wild uninhibited free spirited teenager who promises Mickey 100 kisses before the Summer ends. Mickey relishes her kisses so freely given, but alas! Sibylla it seems has fallen in love with Mickey's father Alexander.As we follow Sibylla's antics in her quest to gain Alexander's advances, we are introduced to some lovely scenes in the woods surrounding the village. Tomboy Sibylla jumps off a high bridge into the river below and we see her robbing the bees of their honey comb in the bole of a tree.These exterior scenes have a beautiful almost fairy tale quality about them. She and Mickey steal into a movie theatre showing "Emanuelle" (forbidden to juniors) and engage in other naughty escapades. Sibylla knows the power of a woman's body and is not averse to divesting herself of her clothes at the appropriate time.Playboy Alexander has a lot of woman admirers, so Sibylla has a lot of competition, but undaunted she will not give up her quest. Likewise Mickey is determined to have Sibylla.Half way through this film another character is introduced. Captain (Pierre Richard) is a bearded man with a boat on a trailer who is looking for water to float his vessel. It is a comical sight to see the outline of a boat moving around the village streets. Comedy unexpectedly turns to melodrama in the closing scenes of the story.Watch this film if you fancy some light entertainment and are curious to know if Mickey is finally rewarded with those promised 100 kisses.

Popularly unheralded, "27 Missing Kisses" is a gem of a movie. Nana Dzhordzhadze directs with warmth and a lightness of touch whilst retaining a keen eye for some truly memorable imagery. In fact, scenically, the film a visual treat. The plot is a simple one but beautifully realized due in part to the excellent performances of Nutsa Kukhianidze as the main protagonist Sibylla and in the supporting role of Veronica, Amaliya Morduinova. The movie unfolds at an easy pace which allows the character of Sibylla to fully develop and for the supporting characters, particularly the women, to fully reveal themselves. Much of the story takes place around a simple village environment and Dzhordzhadze deserves credit for making this place, so warm and gentle, yet filled with such wonderful characters, so believable. It is a film full of varying emotions but never descends into gratuitous sentimentality. The soundtrack is subtle, never intrusive and absolutely appropriate, beautifully reflecting the mood of the film.If this film has any shortcomings, perhaps it could be said that some of the sub-plots are less than perfectly resolved and most of the male characters are clichéd in type but these really are minor faults indeed in what is a completely beguiling movie.

Sibylla comes to spend her vacations by her aunt, this will be a very special summer for a teenager that knows this pretty and rebel girl able to awake the senses of a whole community in a Georgian town. The movie is very poetic and full of funny (sometime surreal) situations, it starts with the total eclipse of sun and with a promise. Mikey asks to Sibylla to kiss her and she agrees telling to the boy she will give him 100 kisses before the end of the summer. Mikey is very in love with Sibylla and he would like to spend every minute of the short season in her company, but for the girl Mikey is not as fascinating as his father Alex.

27 Missing Kisses shows that Europeans are still capable of producing strong little pictures about life in general as lived by ordinary people . Much of the charm of the film lies in the recognition of man's ability of making a complete fool of himself. The natural beauty of the leading character, Sibylla, her disarming honesty in her doomed love for an older man makes one wonder at the forced and unnaturally contrived lives we all lead. Never preachy or heavy-handed, sentimental nor crude, but always utterly believable, its straightforwardness is deceiving. The village in which most of the action takes place is filled with its fair share of funnily sketched characters. Entertaining as they are, they only serve as distractions from what lies beneath.The clever and convincing script, the sober but beautiful photography and the natural performances combined with the assured direction make this German/Georgian co-production a little gem of which any big name director would have been proud. I'm happy to say they still make them this way.