Film title query: 90s film drama set in a post-cold-war mental-health

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Looking for help to find a really obscure film (apparently)... and am looking for an active film forum community that knows its stuff! Have been looking for YEARS.

It was the 90s and being in the UK Channel 4 would show these great late-night movies. One movie I loved but cannot find anywhere.... I swear it was called 'the little village' but google does not bear this out... I am also unsure if a Film4 title, as googling / imdb'ing both are dead-ends.


So synopsis:- (from what I remember)

A soviet(?) country is about to collapse and the old-guard disappear. The story focusses on a mental-health asylum, where two groups (men and women) are kept separately. The main character is a young man remembering his life before incarceration.

He has flashbacks to his childhood, and one scene he remembers being splashed in the face by his older sister's breast milk as she is nursing her baby, resulting in him waking up to wipe his face clean of the imaginary milk.

Throughout the story, the man starts a relationship through the bars with a woman in the other camp - at a distance and rather sweetly (glances and waves etc).

Meanwhile as the old soviet guard leaves, a British traveller / reporter appears to give an update of the ongoing political situation (reminded me of Timothy West / Tim Piggot -Smith, a recognisable UK actor - but this film is not on their respective imdb lists).

As the asylum management disperses, the man focusses on uniting with the woman. I think they have a happy ending as the asylum finally breaks down...

It's a sort of made-for-TV 'zed-and-two-noughts'. Can anyone help? cheers



freedom~empathy~peace
I don't have an answer, but I do have a question:
Do you think the film you watched was produced in the UK?.....or was it perhaps foreign with subtitles?



freedom~empathy~peace
I've found something that has some similarities (albeit slight ones) to the storyline you've laid out. It's set much earlier than the cold war years however.

It's a biopic (Film4) released in the late 1990's about a young Frenchman who is a filmmaker. He falls in love with, and later marries, a fellow patient at a sanatorium for (I believe) sufferers of Tuberculosis.

I haven't seen this film myself, but I checked out the trailer (see below). If you go to the 1:00 minute mark, you'll see an actor who bears a striking resemblance to Timothy West.

'Vigo - Passion For Life' (Film4 Trailer)



Ok, apologies for being incomplete:-
I think it was made 1988-1993. As a genre, very much a drama: there is not a lot of comedy or softness to it, quite a slow ting from what I remember. Was in English and suspect was a part-English-funded film - thus the feeling of a Film4 film, even if not explicitly them.

Honestly Vigo is such a good fit - I think I'll go find it to watch - thankyou! In terms of quality, Vigo seems a bit more polished and has a few more notable actors in - but despite the budget I still think what I am after is a low-budget English film from the very early 1990s - and not a TV show as remember it being longish, so 90-120m from what I remember. But memories are funny things.

and finally, thankyou.



I still think what I am after is a low-budget English film from the very early 1990s - and not a TV show as remember it being longish, so 90-120m from what I remember. But memories are funny things.
When did you watch this movie?

I have long shot - maybe A Little Piece of Heaven, but it is from 2005:

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Watched it twice on UK TV, somewhere around 1990-1993. Honestly, this film looks great too... that bit where the lovers separated by bars is very close... I may just settle for these films instead which is no bad thing. thankyou
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12.12.13 - a dark day in the UK...



oh my... I think I found it... but am now looking for movie-clips to confirm...

Bediani (Lucky Village)
1992Georgia / UK1h 40min
Directed by: Giorgi Levashov-Tumanishvili
Cast: Levan Abashidze, L. Gotsiridze, Zura Kipshidze
A Tbilisi psychiatric hospital becomes an unusual safe haven from the civil war ravaging outside. Filmed in Georgia in 1991, this TV film was completed in the midst of civil war.

hmm.. my memory... will try to track this down: spotted this looking at films above, so the crumbs do all help



Oh my god - I think this is it. THANKYOU ALL. you've trained me to ask the right questions at least, so much I could not remember but will have to watch to confirm. And the links provided got me here, so would not have found without you all - thankyou... funny how thought it was in English... I blame Tim Piggot-Smith.

So yes, scanning through - the scene where two patients strip for each other confirms this movie: more nudity than I remember, no wonder it stayed with me

I seem fascinated with films that depicted sanity and oppression I guess, being such a Catch-22 fan: thankyou again.

so that's bugged me for 25+ years... cheers!



freedom~empathy~peace
...this is it....
That's great news. It's good that you were the one to find it too,...a very satisfying result.

I'm kicking myself a bit for not following up on the 'Tim Piggot-Smith lead' -- but, since you'd already ruled him out, I skipped it. The lesson is...."it never hurts to check one more time".

You mention the nudity,....yes, it's funny how a bit of that kind of thing can make a film stick in your memory (and help a lot at the box office). I think the movie industry cottoned on to that particular angle a long time ago



Very very true - my memory was not sure, and was actually when I saw both movie clips something else snapped into place: it's like when you are on a quiz team and over-rule the correct answer with your stubborness ; yes, had to go back and voila!

it's a darkly-shot film I think but it did have that warmth at it's centre, can't wait to re-watch. I think it's the plot I remember: in the madness of a city at war, an asylum is a perfect microcosm.

But yes, nude women help jog my old man's memory... sad but true - thanks again all.



Very very true - my memory was not sure, and was actually when I saw both movie clips something else snapped into place: it's like when you are on a quiz team and over-rule the correct answer with your stubborness ; yes, had to go back and voila!
I'm glad that you found your movie

What a pity that different good movies are almost lost and only few people remembers or knows these movies.