Discoveries from Georgia World Cinema

The end of the Soviet empire. The General Secretary lies in the government clinic. He is old and frail, but has a tight grip on power. "The power is only taken, it is never given away," he repeats. And it is convenient for both the elites and the secret services -- while the "body" is alive, various groups are scoring their political points. The General Secretary is "sentenced to life". A young nurse Sasha looks after him. Small, fragile and invisible, she bears a heavy burden of responsibility for the life of the country's top official. Meanwhile, the old man is waging a war in Afghanistan, has a nuclear button and can take the entire world to the grave with him.

Lisa, a photographer, has gone missing. The last known detail is that she had been photographing rural football stadiums in villages across Georgia. Her father, Irakli, sets out to search for her, traveling from place to place. Levani, Lisa's best friend – and an invisible person – also sets off to help.

A woman who works for a non-governmental organization (NGO) forms a special relationship with a young boy in war-torn Chechnya.

The story of Pascal Ichak, a larger-than-life French traveller, bon vivant, and chef, who falls in love with Georgia and a Georgian princess in the early 1920s. All is well until the arrival of the Red Army of the Caucasus, as the Soviet revolution that has swept Russian comes to Georgia. Told as a flashback from the present, as a French-Georgian man whose mother was Pascal's lover translates his memoirs for Pascal's niece.

Famous Vegas director Steven Leroy receives a video link of the Kartvelian sword fighting dance from his daughter Mirrey. It impresses him so much that decides to travel to Sakartvelo in order to create an unforgettable show.

Romantic affection of a 17 year old Kurdish boy takes a dark turn, as he wanders through ghetto of Tbilisi with his drug-dealer friend, discovering the bittersweet taste of life.

Lia, a retired teacher from Georgia, learns from her young neighbor, Achi, that her long-lost transgender niece, Tekla, has crossed the border into Turkey. In search of Tekla, Lia travels to Istanbul with the unpredictable Achi, where they explore the hidden depths of the city.

Separated from her fiance after sneaking onto a restricted slope, Mia, a free riding snowboarder, must survive not only against nature, but the masked snowmobile rider in black who's out for her blood.

Merab, a devoted dancer, has been training for years with his partner Mary for a spot in the National Georgian Ensemble. The arrival of another male dancer, Irakli, sparks both an intense rivalry and romantic desire that may cause Merab to risk his future in dance as well as his relationships.

The Inguri River forms a natural border dividing Georgia from Abkhazia. One of the spring floods has created a little island in the middle of the river, as if made for the cultivation of corn. At least, this is the belief of an old peasant, whose sunburned face resembles the landscape he has trodden for dozens of years.

In a patriarchal society, an ordinary Georgian family lives with three generations under one roof. All are shocked when 52-year-old Manana decides to move out from her parents’ home and live alone. Without her family and her husband, a journey into the unknown begins.

Two stories separated by 1400 years. After losing his mother in the midst of a war-torn country, an Iraqi child learns the importance and power of patience by discovering the historical story of Lady Fatima and her suffering.

Twelve-year-old Toma is expelled from school after being relentlessly tormented by his classmates. His estranged father, Nemo, who disappeared when the boy was just two years old, invites him to their ancestral village. The locals do not embrace Nemo's unwelcome return. But he doesn't fear anyone and is determined to pass on the ancient tradition of deer hunting to his son. This fateful weekend Toma learns survival, independence, and the dark secrets of his father's past.

A modern version of the plot from ancient Greek myths about the journey of the Argonauts from Hellas to Colchis for the Golden Fleece.

In the Georgian riverside town of Kutaisi, summertime romance and World Cup fever are in the air. After a pair of chance encounters, pharmacist Lisa and soccer player Giorgi find their plans for a date undone when they both awaken magically transformed with no way to recognize each other.

Life follows its routines in a small Georgian village during the festive days of Christmas and the New Year. Nata and Dato's family appears harmonious by local standards, but beneath the surface lies turmoil. After enduring yet another violent incident at the hands of her husband, Nata decides to leave, only to face unexpected opposition from village women who pressure her to maintain the façade of normality. This intimate portrait reveals her quiet struggle for dignity against deeply ingrained societal expectations.

Follows Georgian ex-wrestler’s journey to Brooklyn, New York. His aim is to get his son out of a gambling debt. He meets people who help him and people who ignore him.

In the working-class neighborhoods of Nice, a pillar of the local Georgian community is murdered. His son Tristan, who aspires to become an orthodox priest, finds himself finds himself alone with his grieving mother. Gabriel, his older brother with a troubled past, reappears from a long exile to make amends by redeeming his family honor.

Eka and Natia leave their childhood behind and ignore societal customs to escape from their turbulent family lives.

Life creates many obstacles for 12 years old boy - Tedo. Tedo belongs to the generation, which was forced to mass displacement because of the civil war in Abkhazia, one of the most beatiful places in Georgia. The civil war took away everything Tedo had, even hope. The film tells about an extraordinary internal drama of a little boy, his thoughts, feelings, pasions, sorrows and efforts to take arms against the difficulties.

Tushetian shepherds guide thousands of sheep along an ancient migratory route between mountains and deserted steppes, following seasonal rhythms in a landscape where traditional movement meets a rapidly changing world.

In a sleepy provincial town, a Jehovah’s Witness community is under attack from an extremist group. In the midst of this conflict is Yana, the wife of the community leader, whose familiar world is slowly crumbling around her. Meanwhile, a detective intrudes on her home with devastating consequences.

Nina is barely 40, she is attractive and successful: a stable marriage, a trusting relationship with her husband, a little son, a favorite job. The idyll of pleasant stability is broken by a call from the past - Nina's ex-lover Ruslan is dangerously ill and asks her to come to Tbilisi to see him, perhaps for the last time. The husband does not mind, he knew about their relationship in the past. Nina is happy to go to the city where she was happy in order to support a once loved one in a friendly way. She believes she loves her husband and family and plans to return home soon, not expecting this light trip to be her last.

A young woman's passion has a remarkable effect on a Russian village in this comedy-drama with fantasy elements. Sybill is a teenager who is sent to a small town in the country to spend the summer with her aunt. Despite her tender age, Sybill is ripe and sexually aware, and while the initial object of her attention is Alexander, a widower in his early 40s, she instead pairs up with Mickey, Alexander's teenage son. Mickey quickly becomes infatuated with Sybill and is more than happy to indulge her fondness for outdoor lovemaking. Between Sybill's carefree, youthful sensuality and the appearance of Emmanuelle at the local movie house, suddenly love and lust are in bloom all over town.

A feature documentary film by Kote Kalandadze

Nika is taking care of his paralysed abusive father, Sandro, in a run-down suburban family house near Tbilisi, soon to be sold. When Nastya, Nika’s girlfriend, arrives unannounced, Sandro unleashes his manipulative powers to the fullest.

Tina, a young woman who has lost her way in life, rents a room from the vibrant Megi, thanks to whom she gradually starts to discover what it’s like to be free and to be able to make her own decisions without being reliant on men… Self-assured in its directorial style, this authentic film portrays millennials in contemporary Tbilisi and points to the influence of patriarchal thinking on Georgian society.

Rene Dadiani, a big city dweller, teaches video art in a film school, while at the same time working for a propane delivery office. He claims real men are men of many hats. In film school, he's one of the avid preachers of self-initiated absurd theory. He assumes that one can enhance the power of imagination by way of altering consciousness that, on its turn, can give way to new reality. Rene often observes life via his Handycam. Sometimes those he captures are not only the 'real' people, but imaginary personalities, too.

A lonely 40-year-old schoolteacher takes up with the wife of a soon-to-be-released convict. A compassionate tragicomedy commenting on relationships and the profound emotional responsibilities they trigger.

The screenplay for Khibula was inspired by the real events taking place in Georgia briefly after the country regained its independence in 1991. Zviad Gamsakhurdia, the first president of Georgia, elected by the majority of votes, was driven into exile by coup d'etat. Even though he returned to regain power soon after, political clashes once again forced him to flee into the mountains. Based on the final chapter of the first President's life, the film starts off by following his journey accompanied and pursued by both friend and foe.

Farmer Ivan Dunaev gets up early. He feeds his piglets, does paperwork, fixes the tractor, and weighs the meat he'll take in his old pickup truck to the market to sell. He has a wife, a teenage daughter, and a young son. And he loves to hunt. His world revolves around these things. Then, one day, two new workers, Lyuba and Raya, on work release from the local prison colony, arrive on the farm. Ivan doesn't notice it at first, but something begins to change.

In this reimagined version of SpongeBob SquarePants, the beloved cartoon is transformed into a gothic 3D claymation masterpiece. Set in the eerie town of Rock Bottom, this interpretation explores darker themes while retaining the humour and charm of the original series. The Burtonesque art style and atmospheric storytelling make this a standout work in the SpongeBob Reimagined series.

Datho (Merab Ninidze) has been innocent in prison for many years. When he comes home nobody wants him. His angelic wife Elene (Anna Antonowicz) has fun with a fire-eater. The two children imagined the father as a hero, not as a sorrowful knight. But everything changes when Datho can freeze his enemies in the bathtub or he calls for rain so that they remain stuck in the mud.

Givi lives in Moscow, and Levan in Tbilisi. The friends had not seen each other for thirty years and found each other on a social network. It would seem that they have nothing in common. Givi is a film director and has family problems. Levan is lonely and lives like a homeless person. Givi is going through changes in his life, while Levan has not changed anything for a long time. But they have something in common – childhood memories. Thanks to communication on a social network, they begin to help each other. Levan opens up to Givi from a new, unexpected side, and Givi gets the opportunity to return to his childhood, to his hometown.

Soviet Georgia, 1983. Preparations for Nika and Ana's wedding are in full swing and it's a big day for both of their elite families. For the newlyweds and their friends, however, the celebrations are in fact part of a cover-up, as they plot an audacious escape from the Soviet Union.

The director dedicated this lyrical, epic film-confession to the memory of his father who was a doctor. The film’s protagonist, an ambulance doctor, conducts dangerous experiments in search of a vitally important vaccine. His wife believes in his work, though his daughter would not understand him. His son, who is absolutely unlike his father in character, is trying to protect him. But self-denial in the name of science proves too high a price. Just when he is on the verge of discovery, the doctor loses everything he has gathered as a result of his twenty-year-long work. This loss brings him even closer to his son. The shooting of the film continued for seven years (1985-1992), making it a metaphorical culmination of the Soviet cinematography and the Soviet way of life as a whole.

Datuna, a 38-year-old man, leads a double life. His usual life is being an archivist at the public TV station. He leads a secret life on social media, transforms himself into his acquaintances, steals identities of women and chats with men. One such identity thefts turns out to be tragic for Margo – his actions ruin the life of a young woman without her realizing the reality behind it.

A village on the Georgian Black Sea is full of friendly people convinced they know each other. One day, Eliko is found hanged. His granddaughter Moe comes to organize his funeral. She is confronted with a web of lies and the tragic consequences of Eliko's hidden love life with Amnon, which lasted 22 years. The truth however frees Moe’s capability to love and forces the villagers to take a stand.

Shindisi tells the story of the 2008 Russia-Georgia war through the fate of 17 Georgian soldiers who died during the Shindisi battle. The script was written by Irakli Solomanashvili based on real facts and the cast includes Georgian actors as well as real Georgian soldiers with combat equipment.

A woman faces a life‑altering choice that will determine whether she finds freedom or remains trapped.

A diminutive twentysomething 'Soso' (a nickname given to him by his mother) leads a group of revolutionaries in a massive bank heist to rob the Imperial Bank in 1907 Tbilisi. In the process, Soso becomes the man known as Joseph Stalin.

Friends Giorgi, Temo, and Sandro go to the airport to see off their childhood friend Keta, who has worked at an American university for 10 years. They plan to show her Batumi, but she heads to Kakheti for an archaeological dig with American archaeologist Mitch and many student girls. The boys follow, competing to “match” with the girls. Giorgi soon stops, as childhood love with Keta rekindles, though she also loves Mitch, who came to Georgia for her.

Few not connected novels about the love. Few couples falling in love in different places of post USSR: Moscow, Georgia, Armenia.

A middle-aged, unemployed heroin-addict, Checkie, loiters on the Tbilisi street outside his son’s school, where he himself was once a promising student. His wife, meanwhile, struggles to pay the tuition and understand her husband’s lack of interest in the family’s survival—even as the bank repossesses their furniture. But when a group of policemen blackmails Checkie into entrapping the son of his wealthy friend, husband and wife are unified by the uncertainty of their deepening moral dilemma, and a series of worsening foul-ups, in Levan Koguashvili’s lightly humorous yet realistic drama about the fate of a generation left behind in Georgia’s post-Soviet era.

It's 1992. Young Dina lives in a remote mountain village where life is strictly governed by centuries of tradition. Dina's grandfather has promised her to David, who is returning from the war. But with him comes a comrade-in-arms, the handsome Gegi, and Dina falls in love. Is it possible to defy the firmly established order?

"Negative Numbers" is the true story of a juvenile detention centre in Tbilisi, Georgia in the early 2000s. Two ex- professional rugby players took up the challenge to help these young offenders by bringing rugby in to the centre. The film recounts some of these stories. "When you have to decide which family you really belong to."

The President is the story of a dictator of an imaginary country in the Caucasus, who is forced to escape following a coup d’état, and begins a journey to discover his country in the company of his five-year-old grandson. The two travel across the lands that the President once governed. Now, disguised as a street musician to avoid being recognized, the former dictator comes into contact with his people, which he comes to know from a different point of view.

Washed up British film director, Emil, who is invited by a nascent state to make a national Epic in an obscure Caucasus Republic ruled by an eccentric and corrupt dictator. When down and out Academy award winning British film director Emil Miller receives an invitation to the Embassy of the Autonomous Republic of Karastan, little does he know that he will be embarking on one of the wildest journeys of his already diverse and colourful career.

In Svaneti, the mountainous region of Georgia, there is the Jachvliani clan tower known to have shown an angel figure of white smoke. At these times the tower inhabitants always prayed as the angel was believed to protect them. One day a man from another clan was killed in the tower and the angel has never made its appearance since.

Masha and Ilya were born around the time Vladimir Putin came to power. The girl and the boy, just like their friends, wanted to live in a free, democratic and open country. Fighting for freedom and their future, our heroes organise discussion clubs and protest actions, participate in pickets and give lectures, support their comrades who are behind bars, try to change the minds of their relatives, friends and ordinary passers-by in various Russian cities. "Moscow, come out!" shouts Masha at a rally. But Moscow does not come out, it is busy and in a hurry. The centuries-old machine of unfreedom sweeps the boys away. War breaks out. And we all find ourselves in another reality.

In a post war Georgia, an unemployed architect, Andro tries to help out his family, fills the car with household junk and goes to Turkey for private trading, with his son Dato. On the border they give a ride to a Turkish hitchhiker Taner, to Trabzon. This meeting turns this harmless journey, into series of unfortunate events for Andro and his son.

This is the story of the Tbilisi-Batumi train, which, due to a switchman's mistake, first enters the line of occupation of the Georgian region of the Autonomous Republic of Abkhazia, then the train enters the city of Chiatura.

short film about successful and powerful woman who is a couples therapist and the author of the book "Healthy Relationships." On an ordinary yet profoundly meaningful day, compassionate and insightful Anna discovers the stark contradictions between her life and her values.

A traveling trader provides a window into rural life in the Republic of Georgia, where potatoes are currency and ambition is crushed by poverty.

After 16 years of imprisonment, 40-years-old Gogliko is released from jail. He doesn't exactly know what he did that deserved 16 years of jail time. A free man, a changed country awaits him. His personal life has drastically altered. His parents have passed and most of his friends have died during the Civil War period. Gogliko realizes that he will not be able to find his place in this "new" Georgia, only thing he has to do is to care about his passed friend's 16-years-old son.

This Georgian drama seeks to renew and reinforce a sense of cultural and national identity as it examines a tragic event in the idyllic life of an aristocratic Georgian family. Much of the film focuses upon their happy and peaceful life of this family comprised of a young couple and their baby daughter Keto. Their life changes when two drifters come in. The two men (who seem to be Muslims from the Azerbaijan republic) are met with hospitality. They repay it by kidnapping baby Keto. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

In Georgia, in the middle of a desert, on the hottest day of summer two water-melon sellers cross paths.

The film tells with light humor the devastating effect that fear instilled by a dictatorial regime has on a person, how it clouds and shuts down the mind, and ultimately destroys the personality.