My Happy Family Review: A gem from Georgia

For some time now, Georgia — and its capital Tbilisi — are often talked about being a travel destination, especially if one is a resident in the Middle East. Easy to access, gorgeous landscapes, lovely people and value for money. While most of us have had Georgia on our minds as a tourist attraction, we don’t really have much of handle on the local culture, its social oddities and quirks. Which is why when I chanced upon My Happy Family on Netflix recently, I immediately decided to give it a shot.

The movie begins with giving us a peek into a ‘typical’ Georgian family. A traditional homestead is transgenerational. Grandparents, parents, children, grandchildren, everyone lives together in a chaotic ensemble. And so it begins with this particular family, which is not particularly unhappy, but lends itself to affable and annoying politics and emotional blackmail. Manana (a superlative Ia Shugliashvili) is the person holding a dysfunctional family together; she’s middle-aged (her age is not mentioned specifically — even though there’s a birthday celebrated — but she’d probably be around 50) and quietly attractive, but weighed down by the relentless routine that follows her as she tends to her grouchy parents (not in-laws, but her own), her emotionally distant (read: selfish) but not bad-intentioned husband Soso, her daughter and son-in-law and her unambitious son, while also juggling a clerical job.

As she tries to keep her wits about her, while grudgingly loving her varied family members, she decides to start living on her own terms. Her first step would be to find her own apartment. She zeroes in on one that she can afford, and the next onerous task on hand is to announce her intent to her family. She does it at the dinner table, and obviously all hell breaks loose.