Letters to Max

Directed by Eric Baudelaire

Starring Maxim Gvinja

A record of the epistolary encounter between French artist and filmmaker Eric Baudelaire and Maxim Gvinjia, former Foreign Minister of the breakaway Caucasian state of Abkhazia, Letters to Max is both a chronicle of a developing friendship and an ingenious, unusual essay film about the inherently speculative nature of nationhood.

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  • ★★★★ review by Luis Enrique Rayas on Letterboxd

    Con pretexto de una amistad que se reencuentra, Letters to Max narra la historia de Abjasia, un país aun no reconocido por la ONU. ¿O era al revés?. Las lineas entre lo personal y lo nacional son muy delgadas cuando ambas maduran al mismo tiempo y Eric Baudelaire explota esa linea a través de Maxim Gvinjia, su amigo, quien fuera ministro de relaciones exteriores del país.

    Eric se comunica en texto, a través de sus cartas; Max en voz, en las grabaciones que forman la película. No hay más que un momento con una cara hablando, la de un amigo mutuo que comenta sobre una película que se grabó en el país que nunca se ha proyectado por que la experiencia del director fue tan terrible que prefirió volver a grabar en otro país. El resto está compuesto por imágenes que se unen y contraponen con lo que Eric pregunta y Max relata.

    Abjasia parece perdido en la memoria y reconstrucción que ambos forman. Un país vivo intentando conseguir la más básica legitimidad y aventurarse en los quehaceres capitalistas, y a su vez, un fantasma de sus guerras pasadas y sus mejores tiempos dentro de la Unión Soviética. Esto sin despegarse de la relación de sus dos interlocutores, cuya comunicación sólo es posible dentro de la película. Max nunca pudo enviar una carta de regreso y Letters to Max está ahí para funcionar como respuesta.

    Buena cosa.

  • ★★★★ review by weehunk on Letterboxd

    Take note filmmakers. It turns out that the visuals don't have to exactly match what is being said, or even have the person talking directly into the camera. Lots of excellent choices made in this film. It's just that when you look into the ethnic cleansing of the Georgians and Max's attitude towards that, that the film is so much more about what wasn't said or asked. 'Hey, Max. What about the genocide?'

  • ★★★½ review by concorde on Letterboxd

    압하스를 아시나요

  • ★★★★ review by Stevie van der Kolk on Letterboxd

    One of the few films that doesn't forcefully characterise Abkhazia as a failed, separatist, dirty post-Soviet state but rather fosters a discussion of the idea of nationhood and humanity of a country that's seemingly grounded in unreality.

    It's so refreshing to see another narrative take on Abkhazia. Hopefully we can get more of these films on other non-recognised nations like Transylvania or South Ossetia, would be interesting to hear their narratives as well.

  • ★★★★ review by LWLies on Letterboxd

    Set against the disassociated voice of Maxim Gvinjia – the eponymous Max – this portrait of the territory which was once attached to Georgia is the latest film by director Eric Baudelaire. Abkhazia is recognised by only a handful of countries following a protracted war with their former rulers, and Letters to Max documents its struggle to become a nation state...

    READ THE FULL REVIEW AT LITTLE WHITE LIES

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