Billed as a tragicomedy about sex and life in the former Soviet Union, Summer... is scripted by Irakli Kvirikadze, Djordjadze's husband. The madcap, ribald, original Irakli knows the absurdities of socialist life and mores ­ particularly its notoriously hidden libido ­ like the back of his butt. It was he who wrote Robinsonade and A Chef In Love for Djordjadze, as well as the 1999 Venice entry Luna Papa for Bakhtiar Khudoinazarov. He also wrote and directed The Swimmer (1980) and The Journey Of Comrade Stalin To Africa (1990) ­ the former was banned for seven years, and the latter is still a scandal in some Eastern European countries. As separate talents, writer-director Kvirikadze and director-actress Djordjadze have bagged a score of FIPRESCI and international festivals. As a team, they're next to unbeatable.

Set in a "sleepy Eastern town", Summer... finds 14-year-old Sybille (Nino Kuchanidze) arriving to spend the summer vacation with her aunt. There she falls in love with the middle-aged widower Alexander (Eugeni Sidichin), whose son Mickey (Shalva Iashvili), also 14, has a crush on Sybille. During this summer of the magical eclipse ­ stunningly photographed by Phedron Papamichael ­ Sybille promises Mickey 100 kisses. But since he only gets 73, the rest of the story is about the 27 missing kisses ­ and what happens when a secret screening of a pirated Emmanuelle film at the local armaments factory turns the whole town upside down.