Emotions and the representation of funeral rites in Sergei Tretiakov’s Georgian screenplays, 1928–1931

Abstract

ABSTRACT After the October Revolution and the Civil War, funerals became a distinct element of daily Soviet life. As a response to the traumatic moral situations, the filming of funerals fulfilled a documentary and didactic function as it formalized changes that were occurring within society, demonstrated appropriate ways to mourn, and performed a commemorative function. This article contributes to the ongoing study of Sergei Tretiakov's oeuvre by focusing on representations of funeral rights in his Georgian screenplays and films: Eliso (1928), Slepaia (1930), Sol' Svanetii (1930), and Khabarda (1931). It argues that the cinematic representations of funerals in Tretiakov's Georgian screenplays reflect several competing paradigms at work: the funeral rebellion in Eliso, the private funeral in Slepaia, the ethnographic funeral in Sol' Svanetii, and the political funeral in Khabarda. Within each of these scenes, the viewers' emotions are being rerouted and manipulated to align with the film's ideological message. This article further casts a light on a time when manipulating viewers' emotions was at its formative stages, while the contradictions between facts and emotions were being negotiated in LEF's cine-theory and on screen.