We shouldn’t disappoint and betray, but just love each other

The task of sorting out the difficult relations between Georgia and Russia has slowly but surely switched from stern conference rooms in international organizations to the big stage. Singers, actors and directors are striving to tell the truth about the August events. Each with their own version of it... The desperate step taken by the Georgian performers of the song "We don't wanna put in" has provoked nothing but bewilderment. Whereas the clip by Vakhtang Kikabidze, which we in Russia love despite everything, has provoked a storm of emotions.

At least, that is the conclusion that can be drawn from the comments left on the site of Radio Svoboda (Radio Liberty), where it was uploaded. The song is called: "You have disappointed me". The epigraph to the clip is a quote from Evgeny Evtushenko: "Having imprudently forgotten about Georgia, it is hence impossible to be in Russia". The video sequence is a retrospective of the main events in Georgian-Russian relations: from Bella Akhmadulina and Andrey Voznesensky's declarations of love for "hunchbacked Tiflis", from the sincere embraces between the creative intelligentsia of the two countries - to documentary footage of the August war. The melody is known to everyone: the tune from "Little gypsy girls". The lyrics were written by the Georgian television journalist, Goga Chanturia.

If it were not for the comments accompanying the clip, it would be difficult to suspect that Buba had "thrown down a challenge to Russia" in this clip. Perhaps everyone who has just as much of an interest in Russia and Georgia can subscribe to the lyrics of this song, everyone who believes that the worst is behind us and there is hope, if not for the love of the old days, then for rational partnership, as it is now being called.

However, in an interview with Radio Svoboda, Vakhtang Kikabidze himself says that the song is aimed at the Russian intelligentsia, who remained silent both during the August events and after them. Vakhtang Kikabidze remarks: "We didn't just want to make a clip about the war, in order to break people's hearts... With this clip, we have reminded them that we (and representatives of the Russian intelligentsia) used to be friends..."

As the American Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reports, the sad song by the famous Georgian singer has hit a "false note" in Russia. According to the arts critic for the Moscow Times newspaper, Anna Malpas, Vakhtang Kikabidze's song will probably offend those Russians who grew up alongside the singer and who regard him as a Soviet artist more than a Georgian one.

Yes, there have been many comments about the clip.

Print version