Discoveries from Georgia World Cinema

A film novella by Levan Tutberidze, which tells the story of repressions and Soviet terror.

Abastumani is a tuberculosis hospital high up in the Georgian mountains where the old Soviet doctors used to be well respected professionals, but as times changed they got stuck in the past and became mere minders for ex-convicts, alcoholics and drug addicts dying of TB. There is many other staff in the hospital, but there is no security. The patients who are predominantly male, greatly outnumber the staff and so the rules of the hospital are dictated by them.

Continuously working on her sewing machine, a woman seems to light up the night in the neighbourhood. A tribute of the director to his grandmother, the film is a tender everyday chronicle of the frequent power outages during Georgia’s first independent years, as well as of the endurance and imagination of the people, always ready to celebrate every time the power supply is temporarily restored.

When the republic of Georgia declared war on the rebellious province of Abkhazia, many of the country's young artists and intellectuals responded to their government's call to fight. Every culture, it seems, needs to discover for itself that war is hell. Khaindrava's version of this aperçu is in every sense a front-line bulletin: it's a black-and-white docudrama about Georgia's attempts to subdue the rebellion in Abkhazia, made with real young soldiers and partly shot in the thick of battle. It starts with the eagerness of students and intellectuals to volunteer for the Georgian army and ends with the deaths of many. Khaindrava, several times imprisoned for dissidence in USSR days, knows all about the conflict: he helped launch it when he was made Minister for Abkhazian Affairs - a post he soon quit. He should have watched Hell Is for Heroes before he took the job.

Against the picturesque Ghanaian backdrop, Children of the Mountain is an honest exploration of a mother’s will in the face of much adversity. When her baby is born with a cleft lip, cerebral palsy, and Down syndrome, Essuman is led to believe that she has a ‘dirty womb.’ Her promising future as a wife and mother is shattered as her lover disowns her and the community eyes her with suspicion.

Intrepid social researcher Sunny drops into strangers' living rooms in Tbilisi, popping controversial questions. No topic is off limits. Should minority rights be protected? What are your thoughts on abortion? Have you ever felt ashamed to be Georgian? And what age did you stop believing in Santa Claus? Many young people now leave what was once known as "Sunny Georgia" to find work in countries where economic opportunities are easier to come by.

The Christmas Holidays are over and people in town start to do fishing.

Zourab and Natia are living a secret romance, but when the news spreads in the village, the situation becomes uncontrollable.

On some pale blue dot in the Milky Way Galaxy – every day - bread is made – you will see how!

A series of high-profile murders, a captured criminal, awaiting a final verdict—this is the subject of the documentary film that Irakli is working on. The production team is actively investigating the facts, meeting with people connected to the suspect, and even speaking with the detainee, who is held in the Ministry of Internal Affairs’ detention center. The deeper the investigation goes, the more sharply society’s role in perpetuating injustice and the destruction of the free spirit comes into focus.

If your friend is a crook, you can get in a big trouble.

The menstrual period as a disorienting passage, where perception fractures, and the body turns against itself. Private chaos turned into a visible experience. Part of trilogy ,,EXOLVUNTUR"

A young artist moves from Tbilisi to New York. There, he meets another Georgian like himself, and their adventures in an unfamiliar city begin.

There’s something big going down in the shopping center QARVASLA.

In December 2024, students in Tbilisi occupy university buildings, demanding the release of those detained during pro-European protests. The longest-lasting resistance comes from members of the Theater and Film University’s student movement. The building’s lobby turns into a space for performances, meetings, and discussions. Soon, the rector confronts the students, the administration demands they vacate the occupied space, the ethics committee suspends 10 students, and police fine the strikers 5,000 [GEL] each. On the very first day of the protest, two Theater and Film University students pick up a camera, capturing events as they unfold, including the most intimate moments. The main character of I Am Not Neo is 18-year-old Temo Vacharadze, who finds himself at the heart of the resistance, convinced he has a special role to play in this fight.

Tribute to Niko Gomelauri

Movie Overview (English) - Required (minimum 10 characters)

The film shows comic and tragic episodes of human life seen through the eyes of a fly. In the end, the fly becomes a victim of children playing in the sand.

Based on the same name fable by Sulkhan-Saba Orbeliani the animation tells a story of a fox kidnaps Rooster, the president of forest and makes the old eagle the new president, who turns out to be the better for the forest.

A man sets up a scarecrow in a field to scare away birds. But something goes wrong...

The biggest attraction in the Georgian city of Gori is still the Stalin Museum. Buses of tourists from all over the world arrive daily, for whom it is a mandatory stop. They happily take pictures with one of the biggest criminals in modern history.

The film begins in one of the apartments in Tbilisi, where four teenagers are playing poker. At the end of the game - one of them starts talking about women, the others keep up the conversation. An imaginary woman will appear in the room. Hence the plot of the development of the film, where two worlds intersect - real and unreal.

In the Georgian city of Kutaisi, a local women’s football team constitutes the heart of a group of female and non-binary queer people, who get together regularly to hang out, to party, to hug each other, and to discuss existential issues. Their gatherings provide a cozy, safe space for these young people in a society that’s not known for embracing its LGBTQ+ community. Discrimination, exclusion, and violence are part of the daily reality for these sports enthusiasts and their friends, whether on the streets or, in some cases, within the family. When they’re together, they find the love, warmth, and safety they need to fully be themselves.

A poetic documentary about modern youth... the stories of kids, skaters, artists and musicians in a post soviet Georgia - a country in a distracted condition, where one can be crashed by the power of church and politics. A close look at the rich world of teenager dreams and sentiments, being lost searching for non existing spots of freedom and romantic state of mind.

In Georgia, Ushguli mountain customs dictate that in the absence of a son, the family land must be bequeathed to a male relative who can carry on the family name.

Gabriel, a young Georgian man, has a love relationship with a transgender woman Amaia, who lives in the Tbilisi suburbs. Embedded in the reality of Georgia, their relationship is threatened. They are given over to the sheer strength of their feelings and are fragile in a violently hostile environment. A narrative of exemplary discreetness.

A man has died in a mountain village. The bandsmen are forbidden to accompany the deceased to the cemetery. There is a war going on, and this is the border that the locals are not allowed to cross...

The film is about a young student director, a boy who tries to convince a famous actress to play the lead role in his play. The play is based on documentary facts, which tells about the murder of 3 people that happened in Georgia in 2015-2017.

Based on a true story about a single mother who is forced to hide her child's existence, because of the social and cultural context in order not to become the subject of judgment and condemnation.

Makho, living in a small village in Georgia is eager to continue the family tradition and dreams to become a falconer, like his grandfather. He spends most of his time with the best friend - hawk Emily, which he trained himself.

The portrait of a pigeon breeder named Hossam, and a look at the culture of the Kashasheen in the city of Amman, Jordan. The recreational breeding of pigeons is widely practiced in several countries of the Levant. The Kashasheen will train their birds to fly and to follow their directions given by whistles, calls, and movements. After having soared high and far in the sky, they will always come back to rest with their master. It is a sport of patience and contemplation, based on building a bond of trust between the Kishash and his horde of birds.

Documentary about the life and journey of Jumber Lezhava, the man who cycled around the world

Robinzonis a Georgian agronomist, whose veggie garden happens to be in the Russian occupied zone. The war starts and people evacuate the area, however Robinzon doesn't leave the veggie gardan.

Nini Kvirike banaobs

Two illegal Georgian immigrants struggle to get their lives together in Brooklyn, New York.

In the mist landfill lives Dato. Stray animals are Dato’s best friends. He salvages building materials to build an independent “Republic” on the dump. Slowly the strange shape starts to appear. But soon financial crisis starts. He is forced to sell a goat to survive. He falls into a deep depression, as he sees his animals as members of his family. Dato finds new strength to continue. But the crisis doesn’t stop. Gradually he is drawn back into the society he rebelled against. He doesn’t give up the idea of building, but what it will be - Dato’s independent Republic or a farm called Respublika?

4 minutes black humor bringing to surprising cold and dramatic story to us. Based on the story the action of the film was moved to the supermarket diary product fridge in order to add more coldness and drama to the story and to feel cold physically. The film is made in cold, blue-grayish colors as much as possible.

Filled with a desire for freedom and self-expression, 16-year-old Cecilia goes to a concert at a bar with her friends. However, the evening of music and fun changes radically after she becomes a victim of sexual harassment.

The first Georgian 3D animated film.

In a poor village, a farmer who goes to the field becomes ill and is brought home unconscious. Relatives and villagers come to visit him, to express compassion to his mother. But sympathy is accompanied by the fear that this illness will spread in their families as well.

The man who loved literature

Georgia in the 90s: Civil War. In the post-Soviet ruins, dangerous men with bags are looting. Oppression, hunger, lack of electricity, violence have become the usual state of people. Years later: the gray past has been replaced by a colorful present, but this is only formally. In reality, the violence index has not changed. The dangerous men with bags have not disappeared anywhere and continue to prey on defenseless people in a changed state.

A Ilia Doiashvili Cartoon

After 30 years living as refugees in an abandoned sanatorium, Irakli and Nana are finally offered an apartment; is it too late to start over?

Niko is a promising young musician. He looks at life with hope and dreams of owning his own drum-set. When a charismatic drug dealer Kogo appears in Niko’s life, he finds himself in the middle of a drug distribution and corrupt police feud. There comes a moment for Niko when he begins to reassess his life.

Georgia, a land known for its wine, is nowadays the third largest exporter of bitcoins in the world. A country that not long ago suffered daily power outages is engaged in a highly technological form of capitalism. What's more, much of this activity is concentrated in the rural, wine-growing region of Kakheti. In the countryside, cows graze amidst internet towers and are killed by machines; drones fly over vineyards; horse-drawn carriages travel on unpaved roads where electricity poles are being repaired and labour is performed by computers. The boundary between the natural and virtual is slowly being eradicated.

A patient dies in a small remote hospital under questionable circumstances. The police arrive at the scene to start the investigation. They look for night duty doctor Nino for an interrogation since she was in charge of supervising the deceased woman. The investigation makes it clear that the death of the patient may not be an accident, but the police have no sufficient evidence to prove the murder.

The tale of the greedy king and the restless bird. Based on a Georgian folk tale.

The film tells the story of a young actor and his two friends. It shows the tragic life of the protagonist, his love for life, his loyalty and his struggle to achieve his goal. There comes a moment in the life of the main character when he consciously goes to his death.

Landscape blends with narrative through a journey of the human heart as a woman healing from trauma.

After a strange event, when the film's big characters become smaller, they begin an investigation and come to an interesting answer...

The film tells the story of a 33-year-old man, Mate, who is trying to enter the United States of America illegally. In Turkey, Mate will be placed in a wooden box loaded with soft toys on a ship. Soon it turns out that in the container where Mate is placed, two more people - Ray from Congo and Mohammed from Tunisia - are traveling illegally.

Every thought born in the character’s mind is instantly translated into the room’s physical reality. My Room, That Is My Mind explores the fragile boundary between inner consciousness and lived space. Caught in a perpetual cycle of happiness, chaos, and emptiness, the room and its owner remain inseparable mirroring one another in an endless psychological loop.

Tea finds out the cruelties of a big city in a harsh way, but her inner and outer beauty helps her on her journey to a true love.