It's probably just as well that this minor gem is unlikely to play the Multiplex circuit because the unsubtle pun in the title would almost certainly elude that target audience. Ostensibly Sylvie Testud - the only 'name' in the cast for non-Georgian audiences - has inherited a piece of property in a remote part of Georgia and has turned up in Tblisi to claim it accompanied by two friends who are also French. The description of the property - a château badly in need of repair - proves that Estate Agents are the same the world over when it turns out to be literally a ruin but the film is primarily concerned with another kind of legacy the first inkling of which comes when an elderly man and his grandson board the dilapidated bus on which the trio are making the two-day journey together with an interpreter. The newcomers have a large piece of luggage with them in the shape of a coffin which, it transpires, is to be utilised by the grandfather at the end of the journey; they are, in fact, travelling to the village of a family involved in a long-standing feud with the family represented by the grandfather and grandson and there the grandfather will be killed as a bizarre debt of honour. At this stage we may be reminded of Hemingway's Swede in The Killers, who also refused to run from a death he found justified. This is a very engaging film taken at a slow pace with well thought out diversions along the way - in Tblisi a video camera is stolen blatantly in broad daylight from one of the trio and the interpreter introduces them to a man who sells it back to them; a mute who is something of a local entrepreneur turns out to be able to speak and offers the trio a grandstand view of the killing from his own property etc - but clearly will not appeal to everyone. I hope it succeeds in finding its audience.
Review of L'héritage
