The film continues to live on and find audiences in different countries.
This was the last film made during the composer’s lifetime. Giya Kancheli passed away in 2019, and it means a great deal to us that he personally took part in the creation of this documentary: he helped organize the filming, gave us a tour of his apartment, invited us to a recording session and to the Rustaveli Theatre. We filmed him at work, among friends, within the living atmosphere of his city.
He showed us Tbilisi — the place from which, as he said, “you can see the soul of Georgia.”
He even followed the editing process closely and intervened in the montage.
Another key figure in the film is Canadian clarinetist Julian Milkis, who introduced us to Kancheli. As a child emigrating from the Soviet Union, Milkis had never encountered Kancheli’s music. Years later, driving to one of his own concerts, he heard Kancheli on the radio for the first time. The music moved him so deeply that he almost missed his performance.
They later met at a festival. When Milkis invited Kancheli to attend his concert, the composer replied with characteristic irony:
“Thank you, you are a charming young man — but I hate clarinet.”
We are grateful that this story — about music, encounter, and time — continues to resonate.
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