Name: Dorothy Padilla

Course & Section: AB Foreign Service 201

Subject: Introduction to International Trade
Professor: Sir. Jumel G. Estrañero

The Trader/Sovdagari

I. Background of the Film.

The Trader/Sovdagari is a Georgian short documentary film directed by Tamta

Gabrichidze and produced by Ilia Tavberidze. The film was released on Netflix on
February 9, 2018 and was the second Georgian film to be broadcasted on Netflix after
My Happy Family. The 23-minute film follows the story of a trader/merchant named
Gela Kolochovi from Tbilisi who trades second hand clothes and household items
from a rural area in Republic of Georgia where potatoes are their currency instead of
Georgian lari. The film “The Trader” had its premiere at the Hot Docs Canadian
International Documentary Festival in 2017, where it won best short documentary
award and won the Sundance Film Festival Short Film Jury Award afterwards. The
director’s juxtaposition of the joy of the children and the harsh reality of adulthood in
these community creates a surprising emotional depth to the short documentary
format.

II. Body

Gela Kolochovi is a merchant/trader who drives to Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia, to

buy items and goods with his minivan. He bought toys for children, household items
and mostly secondhand clothes and shoes or as we call it as “ukay”. After arriving in
a rural area in Georgia, Gela spoke with the harvest owner of the village to ensure the
quality of the potatoes he will exchange with the items he bought earlier. Most adults
from the village are harvesting potatoes, they considered the vegetable as their
livelihod and money as if their life depends on it. The place looks serene, as laughters
of the children are the noise while their mothers are surrounding the newly brought
items of Gela in his minivan, bargaining with potatoes. Giggling while trying the
second hand scarf priced for five kilos of potatoes and buying persimmons,
contentment was shown on their faces. A moment later, a woman checking the boots
in Gela’s minivan seems to be bothered by the price, costing 25 kilos of potatoes and
15 Georgian lari if paid by money. The woman then chose to come back with a sack
of potatoes. Gela agreed to sell it for 10 kilos but weighing the sack feels like 8 kilos.
To the lady it was all she can offer as she said that she don’t have more. Though the
sack weighs 9 kilos, Gela agreed to trade it with the boots. After that, a man in his 60s
was interviewed while smoking his cigar, His childhood dream was to become
 educated and graduate from a university but couldn’t because he didn’t have the
opportunity to and now that he is old his present dream is to have a good harvest, a
job and not to sit at home, nothing else. “Potatoes are money for us. Euro, dollar,
Georgian lari…. Everything is potato.” He said with sadness. He was laughing and
joking with his friend mentioning that if he were young he would drive away from the
village and have cars and pretty girls. There were silence after the laughter “That time
has gone.” The old man said.

Children are running as they see Gela blowing bubbles. Children while amused by the
bubbles were asked by Gela where their parents are and said to call and ask them to
buy something for them while entertaining the kids with his bubbles. Afterwards, a
granny was bargaining with Gela as 5 kilos of potatoes for a grater is overpriced for
her. She negotiates by buying it for one lari or give it to her as a present for reasoning
that she’s old and alone. But the old woman’s haggle is unsuccessful as Gela point
out that he sells for his finacial embarassment. Inside a house, a woman and two
children are found listening to an upeat song. The boy was interviewed and asked
what he want to become when he grows up, her mother responds “Tell them you want
to become a Journalist.” The boy was just smiling in silence doesn’t know what to
say. Dawn came and the same boy visits the minivan of Gela with a friend. As Gela
entertains them with his toys, hats and clothes, they were smiling in amusement for
seeing things they have never seen before. “Tell your parents to bring potatoes and
choose what you want” Gela said as he persuade them. As darkness encompassed the
village, Gela left with his minivan to trade his bank of potatoes with Georgian lari
which took him two days to sell them out.

III. Analysis

The documentary fim “The Trader” depicts how people from the rural area of
Georgia voids money as their currency and use potatoes instead. Those people depend
their structure of life to potatoes. As the film took place in a rural area in Georgia
where poverty is rife it exactly shows why labor market status caused a large number
of people in Georgia living in poverty. According to The World Bank, Georgians still
rely on self-employment as the main source of income. Also, the children living in
rural areas of the country as shown in the documentary are less likely to have access
to proper education or healthcare. The interview with the old man in the film where
he mentioned that his dream when he was a child is to be educated shows how
poverty in some areas of Georgia has been occuring for a long time. For these people
to change their currency to potatoes presents how much they have nothing more to
offer. Just as what happened with the lady bothered with the price of the boots, she
still chose to exchange it with potatoes than exchanging it with Georgian lari. People
saying “No, I don’t want to be here anymore. Just sitting here and nothing’s
happenning. If I were young I would drive away from this village” explains how
inescapable their situations is. However, Gela’s minivan full of different stuffs for
children and adults are priced in kilograms of potatoes. It gave people some hope that
even though potatoes are the only currency they can offer, Gela took advantage to it
and produced a fascinating business model. For having potatoes as the currency of
 that particular area of Georgia, I believe that it is applicable because money is money
only if its accepted in exchange for goods and services. Potatoes may be just a
vegetable to us but to them it is their money and livelihood.

Nonetheless, in relating the film to our subject International Trade, as I observed

Gela’s mechanism in trading his goods, he used the foreign exchange market or FX
market in which currencies can be bought and sold. As Gela trades his goods with
potatoes, he simply bought it through exchanging with his items and sold the potatoes
with actual money. Currency conversion is applied as well as it is the process
of converting one form of currency into another usable currency. Although the
conversion of the currency is not international/global, the fact that the potatoes are the
currency of the rural village, it was accepted in exchange for goods. Even though the
village is not a foreign country to the Republic of Georgia, their currency is different
from the actual currency of the country. Also, as what we have discussed in topic 6, I
noticed the relevance of Gela with the exchange rate as it is defined as the rate at
which the market converts one currency to another. In relating it in the film, Gela acts
as the market in the context of exchange rates who converts the currency of a potato
to another currency which is the Georgian lari. Though the village in the film is not a
foreign place to Georgia, their currency is still unalike. It was also discussed how
exchange rate can be quoted as direct and indirect. Another thing that I have
analyzed with Gela’s trading system is that it is the form of indirect quote, as the
foreign currency of the village is a variable amount and the domestic currency which
is the Georgian lira is fixed at one unit. I analyzed it as the prices of the items of Gela
changes depending on the supply and demand of customers. Meaning, Increased
demand for a particular currency or a shortage in its availability will result in a price
increase. Lastly, pointing out the scenario where the woman who exchanges potatoes
for boots gave 9 kilos of potatoes instead of 10 corellates with currency fluctuations.
From the knowledge that I have acqured in our readings, it was mentioned there that
even if a company expects to be paid in its own currency, it must assess the risk that
the buyer may not be able to pay the full amount due to currency fluctuations. Even
though Gela asked the harvest owner of the quality of their potatoes there are still
risks to encounter just like how global firms in trade are likely to shop around for the
best rates before they exchange any currencies. And because potato is a
weak currency, it makes imports more expensive, while stimulating exports by
making them cheaper for customers to buy. The documentary indicates how trade can
benefit some people and hurts others. Relating it with the old woman haggling the
grater for one Georgian Lira, she failed the negotiation as with zero ambition and
lives crushed by poverty, there is no time for sympathy, it seems.

IV. Conclusion

My view in the world constantly changes as this documentary offers a bleak look at
poverty by following a trader and his work in the small villages of the Republic of
Georgia. Although the format or style of the film is slow and boring, it reflects the
mundane, hard and dream-crushing nature of poverty and the villager’s simple
existence. As people in the film are mostly staring at oblivion with silence. By selling
secondhand clothes and household items from the back of his minivan, Gela allures
the young and old to peer into his truck, their eyes lighting up at the sight of modern
conveniences like sponges and lint brushes expresses ignorance in the village.
Watching a child smiling in silence while being asked what his dream is just
heartbreaking. Many would view him just being undecided but after understanding
their situation, it could be possibly because poverty took their aspiration to dream big
and deep. However, despite living in burdening poverty, they appear full of energy
and happy. Their happiness produces sadness to viewers as they live in a world where
a trader, who is not so wealthy himself, has to trade food for toys which somehow
became their window in their inescapable room of poverty. The upper echelons of this
society are someone like Gela, who uses old clothes, toys, and appliances for his
potato bank.  Yes, the vegetable is a way of negotiation and payment. Some may
argue that food should never be a currency, but Gela accepted it in exchange for his
goods so they deemed it as money. To say that I did not feel lucky at all would be a
lie. As I felt their desperation it was really hard for me to not feel blessed. Unlike in
the western world, we argue and question the value of capitalism, with the plunging
stock markets and the widening gap between the rich and the middle class, it is clear
that there are vastly different situations. In this film I learned how one man’s potato is
another’s treasure.