pieces of a world. music as support for images from a life style, old and new in same time. regions and occupations. faces, habits, polyphonic music and a special state of soul. a sentimental testimony, a letter more than a documentary. nothing surprising - it is an Iosseliani movie and the formula from his artistic films is the same. the people and theirs emotions. life in pure form. region by region and its soul translation in few faces, work or games.as parts from an unique construction.Svani, Megrelia, Guria, Kakhetia. the cold eye of camera and the usual habits. not exactly an ethnographic document, it is a window. or definition for an universe who remains, after centuries, the same.

Under the premise of documenting for the sake of preservation the various forms of Georgian religious chanting, a distinct kind of sonorous psalmody passed over from generation to generation, what Otar Iosseliani captures in reality is the snapshot of a not-so-distant past that coexists with the world we might know yet transports us to what used to be. Although titled 'Georgian Ancient Songs', this 20-minute documentary is not bothered too much with documenting history, in fact I wouldn't be surprised if Iosseliani picked the subject with the sole intention of getting a camera and film stock from the Georgian Film Foundation and going off in the mountains to shoot rents of fog rolling down the slopes. With the Georgian chants in the background, this capsule of Georgian bucolic life with all the hardship and small pleasures mesmerizes with its clarity. Simplicity without gaudiness as Tarkovsky would have it.