School age is the most difficult time for a teen. This is the time when he has to reevaluate many things and start building his life. The wrong decision can destroy everything and there will be no way out. The circle of friends a teenager chooses is of great importance as well as, who his role model and idol will be. If he grows up to be a bad person, it will not be the fault of the school or his parents. He will only have to blame himself because a person can choose his friends and everything depends on his decisions. He himself chooses which path to take. Three students graduated from one school. One chose the way to the church and became a priest, the second a minister, and the third a drug addict. All three studied in the same way, although...

THE CHOICE Read More

Time seems to stand still in the silent depths of the mountains, and every second feels like a century. Somewhere beyond the nine mountains, people’s lives are no longer subject to the modern rhythm. They live the way heroes in fairy tales do: in silence, rituals and mystery. Levan Tutberidze’s film “Beyond the Nine Mountains” (“The Village”, 2015) takes us on a journey through this very space, to a Georgia where reality is blurred by mythology and every shot is filled with invisible significance. “Beyond the Nine Mountains” is one of the purest and unusually sweet...

THE PLACE WHERE THE SUN RISES DIFFERENTLY Read More

“Truly I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 18:3). This part of the Gospel is read to his congregation by the pastor of the German Lutheran church, priest Friedrich. This church and village were built by German colonists living near Odessa in Ukraine, as well as many settlements around it: Gross Liebenthal, Hiebeldorf, Mannheim... “We could not choose a better country to live in,” says the German Christina, and the Jew Josef agrees with her, but not because there is something wrong with these lands or the labor ...

LIKE CHILDREN Read More

Humans often tend to drown in a sea of thoughts. It seems to be one of the inherent characteristics of each of them. And this excessive thought can be caused by their own fears, complexes or even inner desires. They have the ability to capture a person's mind at any place or time and this is where encountering fears begins - when a person comes across not a real problem but a version he created within himself. Thoughts, control of which should be in our hands as a rule, often direct us and transform daily life into a constant tension. Maria Sichanin's student film, "Traffic Light" (2011) can be...

AWAKENING FROM IMAGINATIONS Read More

Studying chess not as a sport but as an indicator of intellectual resources that exist in itself is one direction, but the quest for people’s personal portraits associated with it as well as the history of our country's transformation into a chess phenomenon is another direction in today's world. Today, we face and perceive a reality from all sides, where the saying "the smash of authorities" is declared a primitive goal in itself. In the country that has turned into a chess phenomenon, where women have held the world championship in professional chess for decades, no one is surprised today how people struggling with misfortune use these names as a target for their own aggression or insults. This is part of the primitive everyday life of modernity - after ...

THE CHARM FULL OF GLORY Read More

The famous American writer Stephen King wrote in his 1982 short story, "The Body:" "“The most important things are the hardest to say. They are the things you get ashamed of, because words diminish them - words shrink things that seemed limitless when they were in your head to no more than living size when they're brought out." Stephen King's mentioned quote can be connected to the nature of cinema as a medium. The valuable aspect of cinema is that it allows people to visually express their own feelings and experiences, things ...

SUMMER TREASURE Read More

“Namme” (2017) turned out to be a real success in modern Georgian cinema. This film received a rare response and love from the audience. It became an unexpected surprise for the Georgian moviegoers. This film became a vivid example of what an interesting script, the right direction of this script and the diligence of the film crew can do. Zaza Khalvashi, who is the director as well as a screenwriter of the film, offers us a free adaptation of a mythical story. This is a legend about a girl with supernatural powers who....

SHE IS DIFFERENT Read More

It is common knowledge that Georgians were pagans before Christianity spread in Georgia. There were many deities, idols, traditions, and prayer rituals that people diligently served and performed. However, pagan traditions were not forgotten completely after the spread of Christianity. Small rituals and spells that have been with people since their ancestors’ time in certain villages or regions of Georgia have survived to this day. Iberian-Caucasian mythology combines the pagan beliefs of those peoples who inhabited the North Caucasus and part of the South Caucasus. The deities ...

WHILE RETURNING TO THE FORGOTTEN LAND Read More

Along with the statement on dramatic plot, there is a problem of dramaturgical completeness in the recent period of Georgian cinema, which can be explained by several types of reasons: the absence of the narrative and the artistic vision coincidence; something that deprives a sense of reality to the voice; what hinders the narrative from developing in itself - the suddenly discovered, less organic metaphors between the tasks of the actor and the director. “Memento Mori” (2022) is a short feature film directed by Giorgi Kadagidze and the sad dramatic story of its main characters includes a small dramatic story found on the verge ...

WE REMEMBER Read More