Prisoner (Once Again) of the Caucasus: An Ethnography of Film

Abstract

Much of the debate regarding the relation between film and semiotics, which marked the early years of film theory (see Metz 1974), limited itself to a textual analysis of films as closed symbolic systems. On the contrary, taking film as a living microcosm where various and even contradictory multi-directional and multi-level processes take place, open up new possibilities. This paper will start its analysis from the film Mandariniid (Tangerines) (2013, Zaza Urushadze) in order to explore historically different meanings of captivity and hospitality. The examination of these historical categories in relation to film representation and policies will help us reveal national, regional or transnational processes which contribute today to the understanding of how a film can be the context of multiple meanings and power relations, but could allow a ground of a fertile dialogue between anthropology, semiotics and film studies.