Keep Smiling

Ten women are desperately trying to win the televised Georgian Mothers Contest, a beauty pageant for mothers who have more than 3 children. The winner will get an apartment and $25000. All they have to do is survive the night...

The women have mixed agendas. Five of them live in virtual poverty, their eyes firmly on the prize. Elene has been living in a hospital for many years with her family; the option of winning finally being a much needed way out. Feuding neighbours Inga and Gvantsa also are eager to escape their grey surroundings but for Gvantsa it's more of a chance to reignite her failed violinist career. Baya, a trophy wife, is the most glamorous of the contestants but also the most dubious entry, she is almost as uninterested in the contest prize as Lizi, participating at the insistence of her mother who is determined to thrust her daughter into the limelight. The only thing these women share is their dismay at their director, enslaved by the prospect of lucrative ratings, with tragic tales of war and poverty woven in to entertain the audience. As the competition gradually turns sour behind the scenes, tensions reach boiling point. Will the show make it to the grand finale with smiles intact?

Rusudan Chkonia's pitch black comedy drama, inspired by beauty pageants that are still revered in countries around the world, lifts the lid on a culture of entertainment that is as farcical as the politics that foster them. The film was selected as the Georgian entry for the Best Foreign Language Oscar at the 85th Academy Awards.