Georgian film festival gets underway at Tallinn's Artis Cinema
This week, Tallinn's Artis Cinema (Kino Artis) is hosting festival of Georgian Movies. From February 25 to March 2, a series of Georgian films will be shown to, revealing the country's unique cinematic language through the eyes of women.
One of the highlights of the Georgian Film Days festival is internationally acclaimed director Nana Djordjadze's "The Forced Migration of Butterflies," which was released in 2023.
Djordjadze told ERR that although women directors have always played a major role in Georgian cinema, she personally would not like to divide films into those made by men and those made by women.
"There is good cinema and bad cinema. There are good and bad films. We, both men and women, have the same problems in life – people are a great mystery, but life is complicated," said Djordjadze.
"The Forced Migration of Butterflies" is a light-hearted tragicomedy full of humorous elements, touching upon the most delicate depths of the human soul. A young cardsharper makes a living by cheating people. He travels by train, choosing naive passengers, playing cards, and cheating. That is why he often ends up getting badly beaten up.
Lana Gogoberidze's 2024 documentary "Mother and Child, or the Night Is Never Completely Dark" will also be shown at the festival. The film is a tender and heartfelt tribute to Lana Gogoberidze's mother, telling the story of Georgia's first woman director, Nutsa Gogoberidze. It reveals all her pain and joy, but also her profound wisdom, her poetic dignity, her belief that darkness is never complete.
Meanwhile, Dea Kulunbegashvili's "April" on the other hand, is an existential journey in which the work and life of the protagonist, a doctor, intertwine with an intimate sensitivity on the border between life and death.
Also being shown is Rusudan Glurdjidze's "The Antique," which was inspired by the brutal deportation of thousands of Georgians in 2006, initiated by the Russian government. Georgia put "The Antique" forward as its pick in the Best International Film category at the Academy Awards.
Legendary filmmaker Tengiz Abuladze's 1976 movie "Natvris khe," which looks at pre-revolutionary Georgian village life and challenged prevailing patriarchal norms, will be screened too.
More information is available (in Estonian) here.
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Editor: Rasmus Kuningas, Michael Cole
