{"id":6049,"date":"2026-08-17T12:05:27","date_gmt":"2026-08-17T12:05:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/relocationobserver.com\/?p=6049"},"modified":"2026-08-17T12:05:27","modified_gmt":"2026-08-17T12:05:27","slug":"supporting-role-review-dato-bakhtadze-captivates-in-a-nocturnal-odyssey-through-tbilisi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/relocationobserver.com\/?p=6049","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Supporting Role\u2019 Review: Dato Bakhtadze Captivates in a Nocturnal Odyssey Through Tbilisi"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<div>\n<!-- do not apply CSS styles to this element! --><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>\n\tA nocturnal odyssey through the spectral streets of Tbilisi is conjured with mesmerizing effect in Georgian writer-director Ana Urushadze\u2019s \u201cSupporting Role.\u201d On the heavy heels of Niaz (Dato Bakhtadze), a lumbering Georgian movie star whose glory days are behind him, Urushadze\u2019s second feature plays like an old-school Jim Jarmusch joint \u2014\u00a0all existential wandering and weird, winding conversations \u2014\u00a0but with a distinctly post-Soviet gallows humor.\u00a0Having won a Special Jury award and the FIPRESCI prize at Rotterdam in January, the film now lands in the main competition at Sarajevo.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/relocationobserver.com\/?p=6047\">London Film Festival Competition Lineup: Aimee Lou Wood\u2019s \u2018The Idiot(s),\u2019 Mackenzie Davis\u2019 Sci-Fi Romance \u2018My Notes on Mars,\u2019 Hirokazu Kore-eda\u2019s \u2018Look Back\u2019 and More<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\n\tThis mordant melange takes off from the opening sequence, when Niaz finds himself\u00a0at a casting call for an indie directed by Aza (Elene Mausuradze), an androgynous female director with the pallid look of a Tim Burton extra. Winking back to Bakhtadze\u2019s stints in Hollywood (\u201cWanted,\u201d \u201cExtraction 2\u201d), Niaz is used to playing brawny leading men and taking direction from male auteurs. So he\u2019s silent and slackjawed when \u201cthis tiny weird creature,\u201d as he describes Aza, confidently pitches him a tragic one-scene role with no script \u2014\u00a0only a hand-drawn storyboard, the sole copy of which she lends him when he asks for three days to consider. So ensues a period of delirious soul-searching, given tremendous gravitas by Bakhtadze.<\/p>\n<p>\n\tThe film follows Niaz as he drifts through depopulated streets and former haunts like a dizzied mastiff. With a meandering rhythm, he encounters characters from his past, fans and random eccentrics who sweep him into their homes and vehicles as quickly as he slips away. Among them are an Armenian duo with whom Niaz goes to the spa; a few former lovers, including a statuesque makeup artist and a veiled actress; and a crowd of colleagues attending the wake of a veteran critic whose final unpublished work is an exhaustive study of Niaz\u2019s career.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\n\tToo driven a character study to be the kind of trancelike reverie you might float in and out of sleep from, the film nevertheless challenges with an 139-minute runtime \u2014 a length that induces a dreamworld immersion. The film\u2019s trippy side keeps Niaz\u2019s reckoning from drowning in male sorrow, while the measured use of a jazzy, bass-heavy refrain by composer Sten Sheripov accents this wry romanticism. <\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/relocationobserver.com\/?p=6045\">Iranian Director Ali Asgari Unveils First Clip From Venice-Bound \u2018A Bit of Light\u2019: \u2018This Trump Guy Is Threatening to Bomb Here Every Day\u2019 (EXCLUSIVE)<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\n\tUrushadze, to her great credit, employs surrealism with a delicate touch: a special herb that Niaz picks from the side of the road reappears later in the film when he turns out his pockets during a tender meeting with his former partner; a finger doodle traced on a fogged-up window resurfaces like a bout of d\u00e9j\u00e0 vu. An avatar for Urushadze, who based \u201cSupporting Role\u201d on an experience she had making her debut feature \u201cScary Mother\u201d (which won Locarno\u2019s Best First Feature award in 2017), Aza justifies her lack of a script by claiming that the visuals are most important. Urushadze agrees, complementing the film\u2019s shadowy Tbilisi nightscape with bursts of jewel color: a turquoise bird, a room bathed in purple light, a bone-white body against midnight blue sheets.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\n\tDisheveled and brutish, Niaz is routinely greeted by his peers with wariness and surprise, his star faded by what is heavily suggested to be his own doing. But if the idea of Aza\u2019s film triggers Niaz\u2019s mourning over the death of his career \u2014 which is tied up with his old self \u2014 it also forces him to consider a new act, and perhaps the necessity of change in a world that\u2019s beginning to shed its tolerance for the antics of male genius. <\/p>\n<p>\n\tEventually, he becomes obsessed with playing the supporting role. As Niaz searches desperately for a way into the character \u2014 at one point shaving an eyebrow, and being whisked away before the second one comes off \u2014 he finds the challenge posed by this novel part demands a softness and vulnerability he had long denied both onscreen and off. A sensitively observed meeting with his estranged son crystallizes the film\u2019s ideas about the hazy boundary between performance and real life; we are who we play and those characters can reshape us, a notion that, in Urushadze\u2019s hands, comes with a decent side of hope.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/relocationobserver.com\/?p=6043\">Hayden Panettiere Remembered by Viola Davis, Bethany Joy Lenz, Melissa Barrera and More: \u2018I Wish the World Had More Time With You\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<h2>\n<p>\t\t\u2018Supporting Role\u2019 Review: Dato Bakhtadze Captivates in a Nocturnal Odyssey Through Tbilisi<\/p>\n<\/h2>\n<h2>\n<p>\t\tReviewed online, Aug. 14, 2026. In Sarajevo Film Festival (Competition). Running time: 139 MIN.<\/p>\n<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<strong>Production:<\/strong><br \/>\n(Georgia-Estonia-Turkey-Switzerland-U.S.) A Zazafilms LLC, Allfilm, Enkeny Films, Zeynofilm, Cinetrain, Melograno Films production. (World sales: Allfilm, Tallinn.) Producers: Ivo Felt, Zeynep \u00d6zbatur Atakan.\t\t\t<\/li>\n<li>\n<strong>Crew:<\/strong><br \/>\nDirector, screenplay: Ana Urushadze. Camera: Rein Kotov. Editor: Levan Uchaneishvili. Music: Sten Sheripov.\t\t\t<\/li>\n<li>\n<strong>With:<\/strong><br \/>\nDato Bakhtadze, Nata Murvanidze, Elene Maisuradze, Irakli Kvirikadze, Zurab Sturua, Eka Demetradze, Sandro Samkharadze, Nino Kasradze, Davit Dvalishvili, Lasha Mebuke, Murman Jinoria. (Georgian, Armenian dialogue) \t\t\t<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Georgian writer-director Ana Urushadze\u2019s &#8216;Supporting Role&#8217; follows a lumbering movie star on a surreal and wryly melancholic soul-search.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6048,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4706,4235,4707],"class_list":["post-6049","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-film","tag-ana-urushadze","tag-sarajevo-film-festival-2","tag-supporting-role"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>\u2018Supporting Role\u2019 Review: Dato Bakhtadze Captivates in a Nocturnal Odyssey Through Tbilisi - Relocation Observer<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/relocationobserver.com\/?p=6049\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"\u2018Supporting Role\u2019 Review: Dato Bakhtadze Captivates in a Nocturnal Odyssey Through Tbilisi - 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