Research dossier · Arts & Letters

Once Upon a Time There Was a Singing Blackbird

1970 Otar Iosseliani film

Manuscripts, fine bindings, an engraving plate and preserved performance ephemera — Arts and lettersInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas

Record originEnglish Wikipedia

Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0

Source revisionMay 29, 2026

Entity authorityQ1963253 ↗

Source-derived summary

Once Upon a Time There Was a Singing Blackbird (Georgian: იყო შაშვი მგალობელი (Iko shashvi mgalobeli)) is a 1970 Soviet musical comedy-drama film.

Plot

Gia is a percussionist with an orchestra in Tbilisi. He still lives with his mother. He occasionally finds time to talk to people, but it never lasts and he always has to hurry back to the orchestra.

Cast

Gela Kandelaki as Gia Agladze

Gogi Chkheidze

Jansug Kakhidze as Conductor

Medea Japaridze

References

External links

Once Upon a Time There Was a Singing Blackbird at IMDb

Genis Памятник Дрозду.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Once Upon a Time There Was a Singing Blackbird” as 1970 Otar Iosseliani film. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewBest approached as a cultural-object dossier: authorship and date matter, but circulation and reception often explain the wider significance. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1970—that can be checked directly. The authority record carries competing date values—1970-01-01, 1972-07-11—which should remain separate until their references and qualifiers are resolved. The account is most persuasive where Once, Upon and Time can be independently traced.

Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the arts & letters register because the source frames it as 1970 Otar Iosseliani film. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

Reception evidence should be dated and situated: later canonical status may differ sharply from the work’s initial circulation. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 29, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1963253. 2 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1970.

Critical limits

Titles can refer to several editions, objects or performances, making precise identification essential before interpretation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.

Best used for

Identifying works and editions
Tracing reception history
Finding collection records

Verify next

The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.

Three-step research path

Establish the record: confirm the title “Once Upon a Time There Was a Singing Blackbird”, its source revision and the description used here.
Expand the search: follow Once Upon a Time There Was a Singing Blackbird primary sources, Once Upon a Time There Was a Singing Blackbird archive and Once research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Once Upon a Time There Was a Singing Blackbird”?
How did later circulation or interpretation alter the work’s reception?
Which edition, object, performance or recording is being described?

Subject index

Search terms from this dossier

Once Upon a Time There Was a Singing Blackbird history →Once Upon a Time There Was a Singing Blackbird primary sources →Once Upon a Time There Was a Singing Blackbird archive →Once research →Upon research →Time research →There research →

Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Once Upon a Time There Was a Singing Blackbird” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.