Georgian Docs

“The disintegration of the Soviet Union is the greatest crime of the twentieth century.” This has been stated by Vladimir Putin on several occasions, and some residents of Gori strongly agree with him. In Stalin’s birthplace in Georgia, they dream about a return to the time when the dictator was firmly in control.

These die-hard Stalinists are therefore shocked when city authorities have the statue of their hero removed. In their efforts to have it restored, they clash with another Stalinist party, which presents itself as the true guardian of Stalinism and refuses to tolerate outsiders.

A film director appears at a remote, gigantic dam which is only one part of a hydro power station that has been divided by a borderline after the conflict between Georgia and its separatist province Abkhazia. The place gives the director an opportunity to apply for a permit and see the other half, though the opportunity turns into a never-ending torment of expectation.

Stranded at the dam, she becomes close to the people whose lives have been destroyed by the political turmoil of the past. She listens to the secret stories revealing the true lifearound the border, before an alternative opportunity of the crossing arises.

An old railway station in a remote valley of Georgia suddenly becomes a site for a big change, when hundreds of Chinese settle around it to build the New Silk Road.

The seemingly endless tests of developing a futuristic smart city and deep sea port reshape a small fishing village of Anaklia on the shores of the Black Sea in west Georgia. The documentary film investigates the material and social conditions that are produced as a result of these ambitious infrastructural investments, aimed at transforming the country into a trade corridor for the speculative New Silk Road project. By exploring the awkward infrastructural landscapes and relating architectural frictions that have emerged over the last decade in Anaklia, the film observes how the planning strategies and operational logics of large scale infrastructural investments and even mistakes, which the fantasies of technologically managed smooth urban life inevitably contain, are being manifested in a design of peripheral large-scale geoengineering projects. Through artistic-scientific collaborations with international researchers, film partially positions itself at a distance from the actual events and speculates about the possible scenarios of development from a future perspective.

Where the mountains meet the Black Sea, in the mist of a landfill dump, lives Dato. Stray animals are Dato’s best friends. Everyday he salvages building materials to build an independent “Republic” on the dump. Step by step the strange shape of Respublika starts to appear.

Flanked by her phlegmatic sidekick, Dariko is the only outside broadcast journalist at a local Georgian television channel. With derisory resources, she races from one report to another to give an honest, if not objective, image of the current events that shape her environment: from the capture of a “giant” owl to the obituaries—where we thus learn that the bearer of the Soviet flag fluttering over the Berlin Reichstag in 1945 has just been buried—passing via the elections. The multiplication of camera angles (journalist, filmmaker, amateur filmmakers) in The Dazzling Light of Sunset induces a relative competition between images and their distinct depth of focus. She turns the micro-events that punctuate this tragi-comedy with absurd overtones into revealing examples of a country that has begun a still chaotic transition.

Emmanuel Chicon of Visions du Réel

“Ana’s trial” tells the story of a young, strong female lawyer who challenges a system created by male lawmakers. She protects the rights and wins cases for people who, without her, would have little chance of getting a day in court. The price of any failure, however, has the potential to damage the future of hundreds of women, children, elderly, and people with disabilities.

As a candidate running for Public Defender of Georgia she has to be assessed and approved by male lawmakers.

Witnessing Ana’s failures and success, the audience gets insight into the main political and social challenges the country faces.