In October 2020, shocking news swept across the country: Rezo Gigineishvili and Nadya Mikhalkova filed for divorce! Many people know the Georgian director Rezo Gigineishvili, director of popular television series: “Daddy’s Daughters”, “The Last of the Magikians”, screenwriter of the films: “Heat” and “Love with an Accent”.
Nadezhda Mikhalkova, the youngest daughter of the famous actor and director Nikita Sergeevich Mikhalkov, is remembered by viewers as a young and talented actress who became famous in the film “Burnt by the Sun.” The marriage of these two talented people lasted seven years.
Childhood and youth
Revaz Davidovich Gigineishvili was born in March 1982 in sunny Tbilisi in the family of a doctor and a violinist. After the birth of children, mother Irina Tsikoridze abandoned her musical career, putting home first. But classical music always sounded in the house.
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A post shared by Rezo Gigineishvili (@rezofilm) on Apr 28, 2018 at 8:40pm PDT
Rezo Gigineishvili in childhood with his father.
But the career of the head of the family took off sharply. David Gigineishvili was appointed head of one of the famous health resorts of Borjomi. In the early 1990s, the Gigineishvili family moved to Moscow. This was due to my father's work.
In the capital, Rezo Gigineishvili went to school and quickly made new friends. His childhood, which began in Georgia, continued in Moscow courtyards. Here he disappeared for days on end. But when the son began to disappear in the evenings, on the initiative of the mother, who knew her son and all his hobbies, a video recorder appeared in the house. Rezo was so engrossed in watching tapes with new films that he ran home barely waiting for the end of classes.
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A post shared by Rezo Gigineishvili (@rezofilm) on Jul 13, 2018 at 9:51am PDT
Director Rezo Gigineishvili
In high school, it became obvious to his parents that their son was seriously considering cinema as his future profession. In 1997, his father helped 15-year-old Rezo get a job as an assistant on one of the TV channels. From that moment the young man’s film career began.
After graduating from school, the guy, who at that time had already tried to write scripts, took the documents to VGIK. He entered on the first try and was accepted into Marlen Khutsiev’s group.
Movies
The cinematic biography of Rezo Gigineishvili began during his student years. He starred in the top-rated TV series Ice Age. He got the role of Dato. The guy was not delighted with the acting experience; he dreamed of creating films himself.
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Rezo Gigineishvili and Konstantin Khabensky
In 2006, Gigineishvili had the fortunate opportunity to work with a director whose career was rapidly moving upward. Fyodor Bondarchuk was filming his blockbuster “9th Company”. The young colleague seemed promising and smart to him, so Fyodor Sergeevich invited him as an assistant.
Soon Rezo presented the audience with his own project. His debut comedy film “9 Months” turned out to be very successful and was liked by viewers and film critics. It was a wonderful springboard into the world of big cinema.
It seems that 2006 turned out to be the most generous year for the young director. Indeed, in the same year he managed to shoot another film - the comedy melodrama “Heat”. This work of Gigineishvili is notable for the fact that Revaz Davidovich made his debut in it as a screenwriter. This film stars Konstantin Kryukov, Alexey Chadov, Artur Smolyaninov and Timati.
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Fyodor Bondarchuk and Rezo Gigineishvili
The following year, Gigineishvili was lucky enough to once again work with Fyodor Bondarchuk on the “Inhabited Island” project and its continuation.
In 2012, Gigineishvili’s new film “Love with an Accent” was released. The film was a huge success and collected almost $3 million at the box office. Famous artists such as Vakhtang Kikabidze and Philip Yankovsky, as well as young stars Tinatin Dalakishvili and Nadezhda Mikhalkova, were involved in this project. In 2014, Gigineishvili expanded his filmography with the sequel “Love with and without an accent,” in which Ivan Yankovsky and Anna Chipovskaya appeared.
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Ingeborga Dapkunaite and Rezo Gigineishvili
In September 2020, Rezo added another one to his portfolio of melodramatic almanacs - the painting “About Love. For adults only."
At the same time, the premiere of the dramatic retro film “Hostages” took place at the Kinotavr festival. The film received the film festival prize for best director. The film also received the “Edge of the World” festival prize for best director’s work with the wording “For the ability to put all the components of the film together” and became a participant in 14 international festivals: “Hostages” was shown in Berlin, Telluride, Edinburgh, Shanghai, etc.
“The word “liberal” has become dirty in Georgia”
– How do you feel about Saakashvili? It is difficult to hear a kind word about him from the Georgian intelligentsia.
– Let’s start with the fact that it’s difficult to hear a kind word from me about the “Georgian intelligentsia” as an abstract concept. And in general about any social group or trade union. I don’t like layers, I don’t like those who hide behind collective irresponsibility - I like individuals.
- For example?
- Well, what am I going to list? Otar Ioseliani. Alexander Rekhviashvili. I'm interested in personalities, not creative unions. Stalin created creative unions so that the masses would crush the geniuses.
As for Saakashvili: he is obsessed, of course, there is fanaticism in him, but thanks to him Georgia has made a huge leap. It’s another matter that Shevardnadze, having suffered defeat, found the strength to step aside - but he didn’t, and what’s happening to him now doesn’t look very nice. He overstayed his welcome and turned into a very tough politician. I think he has no chance in Ukraine. And yet we should remember what kind of country he accepted - and what kind he made.
– And what about today’s Georgia – has it rolled back a lot?
– In some ways it’s strong: let’s say, the word “liberal” has become a dirty word there, and you can even hear about “liberals.” This is what I don’t understand at all: gentlemen, Ilya Chavchavadze, on whose name you swear, was a classical liberal! Yes, the entire Georgian culture has risen on this yeast.
– After such success, it will be very difficult to shoot the next film.
“Not everyone considers it luck; I’ve heard different opinions, including that “Hostages” was made contrary to the laws of the craft. But I’m only interested in what’s being done outside of craft and between genres, maybe.
Personal life
The first wife of the director of Georgian origin was Anastasia Kochetkova, a participant in the “Star Factory” show. The future spouses met when the young singer turned 17 years old. Anastasia's parents were categorically against this union, considering the girl too young for family life. But the couple persisted and soon announced their wedding.
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Rezo Gigineishvili and his daughter Maria
Soon after Rezo married Nastya, their daughter Masha was born. But the marriage turned out to be fragile and ended in a scandalous divorce. The couple separated and resumed their relationship more than once, but they were unable to start all over again.
Gigineishvili’s personal life began to sparkle with new colors when, on the set of the film, he met the daughter of director Nikita Mikhalkov, actress Nadezhda Mikhalkova. Four years later, a joyful celebration followed. The couple got married in the ancient Bodbe monastery. The wedding took place according to traditional Georgian rituals. The stars began to regularly appear at social events, not embarrassed by the fact that Rezo was shorter than his wife (the director’s height is 167 cm and his weight is 72 kg).
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Rezo Gigineishvili and Nadezhda Mikhalkova
In 2011 and 2013, Rezo and Nadya Mikhalkova had children - daughter Nina and son Vanya. It is noteworthy that brother and sister were born, although in different years, but on the same day - May 21.
In 2020, information appeared about the divorce of Rezo Gigineishvili and Nadezhda Mikhalkova. But then the director denied these rumors in an interview, saying that the couple did not even talk about breaking up. Nevertheless, in September 2017, Nadezhda officially filed for divorce. The couple appeared separately at Kinotavr. Mikhalkova appeared alone in front of the cameras, while Rezo appeared with his new girlfriend Sofiko Shevardnadze.
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Rezo Gigineishvili and Nadezhda Obolentseva
In 2020, the most discussed topic among Moscow's social elite was the romance between director and socialite Nadezhda Obolentseva. The couple’s relationship did not develop easily; there was a moment when the lovers almost broke off their relationship after a joint trip to the Indian Ocean. But in the summer of 2019, without making an official announcement, they secretly registered their relationship. The newlyweds invited Svetlana Bondarchuk, Matilda Shnurova, Olga Slutsker, Anna Tsukanova-Kott and others to the wedding.
After the gala event, Nadezhda’s photos began to appear frequently on Gigineishvili’s Instagram. And on his wife’s birthday, the director congratulated her by posting a funny photo of his wife on his wall.
"Every morning she tries to forget"
– Have you met Tinatin, the only one who escaped a death sentence?
- Yes.
– I heard she lives in Cyprus?
- No, in Tbilisi. I didn't show her the picture - she said she couldn't look at it. She admitted to me that every morning she works on something—that’s what she said: she works—so as not to think about all this, to forget it. And he can’t. She told me a lot about what happened before and after, but not a word about what happened on the plane.
- Does not remember?
– Or he doesn’t want to remember.
– But did any of your relatives watch the film?
– Yes, Herman’s mother. She was divorced from her father, and her father, by the way, is a great master of Georgian cinema - all these legendary short films, “Umbrella”, for example...
– Are any of the judges alive?
– I met them. And you know, it’s a strange story, I don’t even know whether to tell it... This priest, Teimuraz Chikhladze, cursed them after the verdict. And his curse worked - life turned out gloomy for many, so to speak.
– It seemed to me that you would be reproached for Russophobia, as it is called now. Because in the film only judges and special forces speak Russian, it’s like the language of power...
– This is just the language of the only professionals, because Alpha acted absolutely correctly. Why was it necessary to shoot at the plane from outside, what did it accomplish? When the pros arrived, then everything was done, quickly and accurately. No, if I am sometimes reproached, it is for the scene where two brothers flirt with one girl, a Russian nurse. Well, she scared them off there, everything is fine... Another thing is that you understand that a stereotype has developed: a Georgian is perceived well when he is a bit of an idiot. A bit of a joke character. When the pilot says: “I want Larisa Ivanovna.”
– Why wasn’t this film nominated for an Oscar from Georgia?
– It was Anton Dolin who wrote immediately after the show at the Berlin festival that it would be good to nominate him... But you know, I’m Georgian here. And there I am Russian, and they say that the film was shot with Russian money, which is not true. I never, I swear, expected such a reaction - there. And such goodwill here.
– Tell me honestly: did the fact that Georgia was “under the shadow of friendly bayonets” for so long work for its benefit?
– Was the Soviet Union good or bad? Beautiful in some ways, monstrous in others. Yes, there were five million Georgians in Turkey - was their fate better or worse? The fathers of the nation - Ilya Chavchavadze, Vazha Pshavela - gravitated towards Russian culture and were widely read in Russian translations. Well, would “The Knight in Tiger Skin” have become worse if it had not been translated and published in millions of copies? There is no control experiment. Many thanks to the USSR for the education that Georgians received.
I can say one thing: Georgia today is very scared by the 2008 war. My mother was there at that time, in Tbilisi. And when Russian troops entered Gori, she called me: what to do, where to go? What can I say? The army, when it enters a city, is never peaceful... Today, Georgian youth - very smart, by the way, who have made some kind of qualitative leap - look to the West, communicate with the whole world, most of them do not know Russian.
– Does national character still exist?
– There is a national culture, already in the fifth century it was very high and complex. As for character, the Patriarch told me during a conversation: the main problem of Russia is its huge space. Okay, I said, what about Georgia’s main problem? He answered: pride. Pride is like a bad outcome of honor, its dark underside. And there was a lot of this pride, and it was precisely this that was the reason for the damage to everything in the last years of Soviet power, when Georgia was literally corroded by complacency and theft.
Rezo Gigineishvili now
Now the film director has returned to the comedy genre. In 2020, Rezo pleased fans with the new film “Sober Driver.”
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Rezo Gigineishvili in 2020
The plot of the film is simple: a taxi driver, who unexpectedly finds himself in a hotel room at night with his passenger, poses as a young millionaire. An affair begins between young people, but how to confess to a girl that you are deceiving her. The film stars Viktor Khorinyak, Andrey Burkovsky, Irina Martynenko.
