Tengiz Abuladze

Who was Tengiz Abuladze?

Tengiz Abuladze was a Georgian film director.

Abuladze studied theatre direction at the Shota Rustaveli Theatre Institute, Tbilisi, Georgia, and filmmaking at the VGIK in Moscow. He graduated VGIK in 1952 and in 1953 he joined Gruziya-film as a director. He was awarded the title of People's Artist of the Soviet Union in 1980.

His first film, Magdana's Donkey, which he directed with Rezo Chkheidze won the "Best Fiction Short" award at the 1956 Cannes International Film Festival. He is most famous for his film trilogy: The Plea, The Tree of Desire, and Repentance, which won him the Lenin Prize and the first Nika Award for Best Picture. Repentance won the Special Jury Prize at the 1987 Cannes Film Festival. In 1987 he was a member of the jury at the 15th Moscow International Film Festival.