Georges Babluani Movies

A daring band of rebels takes on Nazi forces in Europe in this wartime drama from director Robert Guédiguian. Born in Armenia, Missak Manouchian (Simon Abkarian) had settled in France by the time World War II broke out; a Socialist who stood in fierce opposition to the Axis forces occupying his country, he and a handful of other leftists formed the FTP-MOI, a faction of the French Resistance comprised of immigrants who came to France before the war. Working beside Manouchian was his wife, Mélinée (Virginie Ledoyen), a poet-turned-underground fighter; Marcel (Robinson Stévenin), a Jewish volunteer who is an excellent shot with a rifle; and Thomas (Grégoire Leprince-Ringuet), a passionate Marxist with a skill for making bombs. Along with several other activists, the FTP-MOI wage a propaganda campaign against the Nazis while targeting selected Axis leaders for execution. But despite their cunning and talent, Manouchian and his partners find it difficult to keep their work a secret, and in time they're found out by a ruthless detective (Jean-Pierre Darroussin) with the Vichy police. L'Armée du Crime (aka The Army of Crime) was based on the true story of a French resistance group dubbed "the Army of Crime" in Vichy propaganda pieces. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

A long-standing dispute between two families comes to a strange resolution in this offbeat drama. Celine (Olga Legrand) is a twenty-something woman from Paris who receives word that she has inherited an aging castle in the Georgian village of Tblisi. Curious about the estate that's now hers, Celine and her friends Patricia (Sylvie Testud) and Jean (Stanislas Merhar) travel to Georgia to give it a look, but getting there proves difficult, and they're forced by circumstance to make most of the trip by bus. Sharing the bus with them are an elderly man (Leo Gaparidze) and his grandson (Giorgi Babluani), who are carrying a coffin with them. Celine and her friends learn that the coffin is empty, but won't be for long -- as part of a truce between two families who have been feuding for centuries, the old man has agreed to be executed by members of the enemy clan. At once appalled and fascinated, Jean wants to tag along and capture the grim event on film, but the journey turns out to be more dangerous than expected, and matters take an unexpected turn when the grandfather dies of natural causes before he can be hanged. L'Heritage (aka The Legacy) was a collaboration between two award-winning filmmakers, Gela Babluani and his father Temur Babluani. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi