The Legacy (L'Héritage) (2005)

56% of critics liked it
(16 reviews)
52% of users liked it
(1,319 ratings)

A long-standing dispute between two families comes to a strange resolution in this offbeat drama. Celine (Olga Legrand) is a twenty-something woman from Paris who receives word that she has inherited an aging castle in the Georgian village of Tblisi. Curious about the estate that's now hers, Celine… More A long-standing dispute between two families comes to a strange resolution in this offbeat drama. Celine (Olga Legrand) is a twenty-something woman from Paris who receives word that she has inherited an aging castle in the Georgian village of Tblisi. Curious about the estate that's now hers, Celine and her friends Patricia (Sylvie Testud) and Jean (Stanislas Merhar) travel to Georgia to give it a look, but getting there proves difficult, and they're forced by circumstance to make most of the trip by bus. Sharing the bus with them are an elderly man (Leo Gaparidze) and his grandson (Giorgi Babluani), who are carrying a coffin with them. Celine and her friends learn that the coffin is empty, but won't be for long -- as part of a truce between two families who have been feuding for centuries, the old man has agreed to be executed by members of the enemy clan. At once appalled and fascinated, Jean wants to tag along and capture the grim event on film, but the journey turns out to be more dangerous than expected, and matters take an unexpected turn when the grandfather dies of natural causes before he can be hanged. L'Heritage (aka The Legacy) was a collaboration between two award-winning filmmakers, Gela Babluani and his father Temur Babluani. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Rating, Runtime: R, 1 hr. 16 min.
Directed By: Géla Babluani, Temur Babluani
Genres: Art House & International, Drama

In Theaters: Sep 20, 2006 Wide
On DVD: Sep 7, 2004
Studio: Sundance Channel

Critic Reviews

Deborah Young, Variety
Containing a bare minimum of suspense and excitement, story unspools like a shaggy dog story missing the punchline.
Dennis Schwartz, Ozus' World Movie Reviews
A unique road movie telling a dark moralistic ethnic tale of a long-lasting blood feud between two village clans with fatal repercussions.
Anton Bitel, Film4
This grimly rewarding film reveals a nation trapped in its own historical legacy, and outsiders unable to understand let alone help.
Rich Cline, Shadows on the Wall
Father and son Georgian filmmakers take an intriguing look at the collision between new and old, east and west in their home country. The film is colourful and almost shockingly vivid, with a refreshingly foreign feel that's thoroughly accessible.
Nigel Andrews, Financial Times
The last act, which freewheels towards denouement like a driverless bus.
David Gritten, Daily Telegraph
This brilliant premise falls apart in the final act.
Peter Bradshaw, Guardian [UK]
The week's biggest disappointment.
, Daily Mirror [UK]
Legacy starts brilliantly and sustains its intensity all the way through but, in the last few minutes, forgets to give us a decent climax.
Carmen Grey, Total Film
There's intrigue here, but they're weighed down by the meandering pace and lack of dramatic payoff.
David Jenkins, Time Out
Despite its undeniable thematic richness, 'Legacy' marks a slight return for Georgian director Géla Babluani.
Rich Phippen, Sky Movies
Laced with subtle comedy, Legacy is certainly an affectionate, oddball look at the lives of small town Georgians, but the meandering story, and it's surprisingly simple pay off, is not quite satisfying enough to make it all worthwhile.
Patrick Peters, Empire Magazine
A Hitchcockian atmosphere conjures up some genuine suspense but it loses points for falling into the realms of melodrama in the final moments.
Catherine Chambers, BBC
An air of inevitability punctuates the picture and the lives of the lead characters are under-explored as the directors' focus on tourist ignorance of cultural differences at the expense of any real tension.
Jay Antani, Boxoffice Magazine
A deftly blended melange of European styles, from the wide-open vistas reminiscent of Russian cinema to moments of intimate absurdity echoing Antonioni.
Zack Haddad, Film Threat
The Legacy shows that simple films can work. The film doesn't need anything too ostentatious or amazing to sell the story.

Read all 15 critic reviews

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Featured Audience Ratings

Lafe F

Two Americans (Sam Elliott and Katharine Ross) are guests at an old English mansion, where a strange set of events are taking place. A group of powerful individuals are gathered at the estate to receive their inheritance from a dying demonic host. Those who receive the legacy will… More
Two Americans (Sam Elliott and Katharine Ross) are guests at an old English mansion, where a strange set of events are taking place. A group of powerful individuals are gathered at the estate to receive their inheritance from a dying demonic host. Those who receive the legacy will suffer horrible deaths throughout. There are great scenes with an evil nurse, a mysterious cat, a clawed hand, viscious guard dogs, a dinner scene death, a burning man, and a scalding shower. Escape from the place is not an easy option. Slow-moving, but Patrick McNee and Roger Daltrey are there to entertain with their deaths. It's tame for the most part.
Dr Blood

Nice suspense and nasty surprises and not much wrong with it at all apart from a bit of a let down with the ending.
Walter M

In "The Legacy," Patricia(Sylvie Testud) is in Tbilisi, Georgia to look into her inheritance which she learns is little more than a ruin but decides to take a look anyway with her friends Jean(Stanislas Merhar) and Celine(Olga Legrand) filming the process. Since it would be… More
In "The Legacy," Patricia(Sylvie Testud) is in Tbilisi, Georgia to look into her inheritance which she learns is little more than a ruin but decides to take a look anyway with her friends Jean(Stanislas Merhar) and Celine(Olga Legrand) filming the process. Since it would be kind to call the car of their interpreter and guide Nikolai(Pascal Bongard) a jalopy, they will have to take a bus for two days to get there. The journey is uneventful until a conversation with a young man(Giorgi Babluani) occurs where Patricia hears something that she does not quite comprehend at first... "The Legacy" is a simple story, yet also deceptive in that it's not really about the characters we thought it was, almost lulling the viewers into a false calm before the story gets to a critical point and everything changes. That structure works well with the movie's central theme of westerners blindly stumbling into a situation that they do not understand and, no matter how wrong it may seem, are warned against interfering. Actually, there is foreshadowing of this early on when Jean gets into a fight which leads to Nikolai being injured, without having thought everything through first.