Rezo Chkheidze: I was being of use to the country

Georgian film director Rezo Chkheidze, the author of the great film Father of a Soldier, has died. For half a century his legendary film about the Great Patriotic War has told people the truth about infinite love, the price of victory, patriotism and devotion to duty.

The screenwriter didn't write this episode – he remembered that an old man also fought in his company. Thus, one of the most poignant stories in Soviet cinema, about a father who arrives in Berlin to find his son, was born.

As a director of the Georgia Film studio, Rezo Chkheidze rallied around him a lot of people. "I am, first of all, not a very lyrical person. I am strict but fair, and everyone has seen that. They [everyone from government to secretary] have seen how I live, how my children learn. I have never had a private car, even now. I helped them with everything I could. And it was for every one of them I stood, so Moscow would adopt one scenario or another," the director said in an interview with Vestnik Kavkaza last summer.

"In Soviet times there was great advertising material expression of the republic, cinema advertising, very well-made art movies. But now in Georgia they do not understand the importance of this. The Patriarch of Georgia, who I trust and love, also thinks like me, our views are very similar. But I have not talked with him about this issue in a businesslike manner. Because at every meeting he says that a maximum of two films will be made," Chkheidze told Vestnik Kavkaza.

Rezo Chkheidze grieved because of the difficult relations between Russia and Georgia under President Mikheil Saakashvili, and because of the events in Ukraine.

The staff of Vestnik Kaavkaza express their deepest condolences to the family, friends and colleagues of the great director.