Levan Tediashvili and Giorgi Tabidze in Brighton 4th (Kino Lorber)

A quietly noble soul flourishes amid decay in the Republic of Georgia’s best international film Oscar submission, Brighton 4th. And very picturesque decay it is too. Director Levan Koguashvili has picked the most scabrous, rundown locations he can show off in Tbilisi and Brooklyn’s Brighton Beach. Ruin porn addicts will revel in the film’s rich dinginess, while others may be pulled in by a gruffly sentimental story of a purehearted immigrant putting his life on the line for distinctly lesser men.

Kakhi’s life in pockmarked Tbilisi is a quiet one, spent hanging out in all-male gatherings to enjoy televised soccer matches, drinking sessions, and reminiscing about his days as a wrestling champion. Grizzled, elderly non-actor Levan Tediashvili projects the centered, unjudging calmness that is Kakhi’s response to, well, anything that comes his way. He maintains his chill vibe through his brother’s revelation that he has gambled away money lent to him and is now forced to secretly sell his Tbilisi apartment behind the back of his wife toiling away in Brighton Beach.

Kakhi also stays calm in the face of the unwelcome news that his son, Soso (Giorgi Tabidze), living on the outskirts of New York City, also has a gambling problem that has left him penniless. Stoically leaving behind his sick and worried wife, Kakhi is on his way to rescue the errant son, appease his suspicious sister-in-law, and to come across a few surprises and crackpot schemes as he passes through the dour streets and shabby interiors of Brighton Beach. A semi-comic kidnapping and an encounter with the cartoonish Russian mob will force this dignified man to use skills from his past to protect a loved one at a heavy price.

Koguashvili plays Kakhi’s New York adventures for what are now familiar, slightly quirky fish-out-of-water laughs. Kakhi finds low-wage work, rejects an unwanted advance, and hangs out with the eccentrics in Russian and Georgian émigré circles, drinking and toasting as he did at home. Lied to by the men, women hover in the background, vaguely sensing they’re being hoodwinked (luckily Kakhi and his cohorts keep them in the dark about dead-end jobs and money frittered away to strangers).

The film bears a very old-world approach to life in sharp contrast to go-go America. Kakhi dutifully—some would say passively—tries to right the ship for not one but two good-for-nothings and allows an abducted hostage to walk away scot-free. His inept son’s attempts at gaming the U.S. immigration system earn an indulgent shrug. Even Kakhi and his pals’ plans to extract repayment for some swindled housekeepers turns into a joke. Koguashvili’s characterization of Kakhi as a grounded, decent guy who will make sacrifices for unworthy others in a men-first society grows repetitive after a while, and the matter-of-fact pace can seem languid.

Local details give the story life, though, with Brighton Beach’s mobbed-up beachfront restaurants and Georgian folk singing and chanting providing lived-in local texture. Unadorned camerawork and long takes reinforce Brighton’s air of almost cozy resignation. Life is bittersweet and a bit of a cheat, the film seems to suggest, so why ask for anything more?