ower Trip," Paul Devlin's superbly balanced and organized documentary about the politics of electricity in the former Soviet Republic of Georgia, offers a cautionary reminder that the basic services we take for granted in the United States are often luxuries elsewhere. It also underscores what became painfully evident at the height of the Enron scandal: political power and the distribution of energy are intimately connected.

That scandal gave Americans a nasty little taste of the politics of energy when electrical bills skyrocketed in California; the recent blackout in the Northeast also sent an ominous signal that our overtaxed power grid was susceptible to breakdown.

Those troubles are nothing compared to the dire situation in Georgia. The recent ouster of its president, Eduard A. Shevardnadze, only underscores what the movie reveals about the systemic corruption of his regime. At the same time the perspective of the film is too sophisticated to demonize any one figure.

The movie's vision of a country teetering on the brink of chaos is seen largely through the eyes of Piers Lewis, a good-humored British-born project director for AES-Telasi, the company that was created in late 1990's when the AES Corporation of Arlington, Va., acquired the Georgian power authority, Telasi.

AES officials had no idea what they were facing. The story of the company's struggle to become efficient and profitable plays like an absurdist political farce. When Georgia was a constituent of the Soviet Union, electrical power was state controlled and free. When the Soviet Union collapsed, Georgia slid into chaos and civil war, and utility services crumbled. Desperate for electricity, the citizens improvised crude wiring systems to steal power.

The movie opens with a succinct sketch of Georgia's unhappy history with its neighbors, then picks up its story shortly after the formation of of AES-Telasi. Outraged to find monthly utility bills (about $24) amounting to half their incomes, the people rebelled by refusing to pay. Noncompliance was as high as 90 percent.

Faced with mounting losses, AES adopted a get-tough policy in which whole neighborhoods were blacked out until bills were paid, prompting street demonstrations. The well-meaning company invested millions to build new power lines and establish a secure metering system.

When the airport at the capital city, Tbilisi, wouldn't pay its electric bill, AES cut its power until it paid. Other large industries with government connections also refused to pay.

Ultimately the fate of AES-Telasi, revealed at the end of the movie, was determined as much by American events like the Enron scandal as by Georgian resistance.

"Power Trip," which opens today at Film Forum in New York, is a skillful assemblage of newsreel clips, cartoons ridiculing the American interlopers, television commercials and interviews with power officials and ordinary Georgians. It gives new and darker meaning to that comfy adage "We're all connected."

POWER TRIP

Produced, directed and edited by Paul Devlin; in English and Georgian, with English subtitles; directors of photography, Mr. Devlin and Valery Odikadze. At Film Forum, 209 West Houston Street, South Village. Running time: 86 minutes. This film is not rated.

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