Susa (Georgia)

From Berlinale 2010...

The story of a 12-year-old boy working by day distributing bootleg bottles of vodka in the poor areas of a Georgian "city" forgotten by progress and modernity, and his mother who works as a bottler in the same vodka distillery.  By the end of his shift on his way home, his daily pay is removed from him by teenage mafia-type thugs, financially annulling the whole workday.  Some days he must run away from the police and learn inside tips on how to get away with his illegal trade.  Both mother and son are waiting for the father to return to town and take them away from the sysphian life leading to nowhere.

Then father comes home one day and nothing changes, and he turns out to be the child of the family, incapable of work.

Yes the film is bleak but having had the opportunity to hear from the director, producer, and young teen star after the viewing, we got a chance to learn this is a metaphor for Georgia, where everyone seems to be waiting for an outside country to come and rescue them from their "sad state"without exit.

At the end of the film, the boy rebels against his boss, who wasn't really his oppressor either, but it is a start for the boy to express his need for more.

I found the film a great essay: sober, informative, bleak at first but on deeper reflection actually inspirational.

http://www.berlinale.de/en/programm/berlinale_programm/datenblatt.php?film_id=20102192
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1594555/