Georgia, 64th Seminci’s guest country: 22 titles make up the retrospective

64th Seminci, Sidebars

Tuesday, 30 July - 2019

Frame of *House of Others*, by Rusudan Glurjidze

07/31/2019.- As announced back in May, Georgia will be guest country during the 64th edition of the Valladolid International Film Festival thanks to a retrospective organized in partnership with the Georgian National Film Center (GNFC) and the publication of a monograph on recent Georgian cinema.

The selected titles —16 features and 6 short films— make up a sample of the new directions in Georgian cinema over the last ten years. These are mostly films directed by post-Soviet filmmakers with new ideas who have managed to release their work in international circuits by taking part in co-productions with other countries.

The majority of these films captivated critics and audiences when they were first exhibited and achieved recognition in the festivals where they were screened. Such is the case of female director Ana Urushadze, the youngest in the retrospective lineup of filmmakers. Her first feature Scary Mother was awarded at Locarno and Sarajevo and became Georgia’s submission for Best Foreign Language Film in the 2018 Oscar race.

Also Oscar nominees in the same category were three feature-lengths included in the Valladolid retrospective: the Golden Globe-winner Tangerines, by Georgian director Zaza Urushadze; multi-awarded In Bloom, by Nana Ekvtimishvili and Simon Groß (CICAE awards at Berlin and Sarajevo); and House of Others, by Karlovy Vary awardee Rusudan Glurjidze.

Other titles making up the selection include features released over the last decade like George Ovashvili’s Corn Island, the winner of a Karlovy Vary’s Crystal Globe among many other distinctions; Salomé Alexi‘s Line Of Credit, presented in the Orizzonti section of the Venice Festival; Rezo Gigineishvili’s Hostages, also selected for the Sarajevo and Edinburgh film festivals; Dede, by Mariam Khatchvani, a female director awarded at Karlovy Vary and Beijing and the winner of a UNESCO Prize in the Asia Pacific Screen Awards; and Zaza Khalvashi’s Namme, programmed in festivals like Tokyo, Tallinn and Palm Springs, among others.

Tinatin Kajrishvili’s feature debut Brides, with which she participated in Berlin and Tribeca (the film’s lead performer Mari Kitia harvested the award for Best Actress at Sarajevo), as well as her second film Horizon will likewise join the sample, together with two movies by Levan Koguashvili: Blind Dates, which bagged the Best Director and the FIPRESCI awards at the Sofia Film Fest; and the documentary feature Gogita’s New Life. The lineup of long features is complete with the winner of the 62 SEMINCI’s Best Cinematography Award: Elene Naveriani’s I Am Truly A Drop Of Sun On Earth; the documentary City Of The Sun, by Rati Oneli; and Chantrapas, shot in 2010 by veteran filmmaker and major figure of Georgian cinema Otar Iosseliani, awarded at international film festivals like Venice, Berlin or Mar del Plata.

The selection of Georgian short films, on the other hand, includes Salomé Alexi‘s Felicità; Tornike Bziava‘s The April Chill; Nana Ekvtimishvili’s Waiting For Mum; and Anna Sarukhanova’s Till The End Of The Day, as well as Mother and Prisoner of Society, both directed by Rati Tsiteladze.