‘Supporting Role’ Review: Dato Bakhtadze Captivates in a Nocturnal Odyssey Through Tbilisi

Variety | 17.08.2026 17:42
A nocturnal odyssey through the spectral streets of Tbilisi is conjured with mesmerizing effect in Georgian writer-director Ana Urushadze’s “Supporting Role.” On the heavy heels of Niaz (Dato Bakhtadze), a lumbering Georgian movie star whose glory days are behind him, Urushadze’s second feature plays like an old-school Jim Jarmusch joint — all existential wandering and weird, winding conversations — but with a distinctly post-Soviet gallows humor. Having won a Special Jury award and the FIPRESCI prize at Rotterdam in January, the film now lands in the main competition at Sarajevo.