Abkhazia might be the most tragic and still unresolved part of the recent history of Georgia, it is a problem, both itself and its consequences. Along with the social or political aspect, it remains one of the main and contemporary topics in Georgian art. The young people (the generation that did not directly witness the war in Abkhazia) are interested in the problem of Abkhazia, its lost territories and, in general, the fate of people related to it in various ways, in cinema, theater, literature, music, and fine arts.
Such is the case of Giorgi Varsimashvili and Jeanne Nouchi‘s (with their own idea and screenplay) documentary film, “Hotel "Metallurg” (Georgia-France, 2023, Giorgi Varsimashvili is - editing director, together with Claudio Hughes, producer - together with Pierre Jestaz and cameraman).
The action in the film takes place in our days, in Tskaltubo, in the building of the former "Metallurg" hotel. In the place where IDPs from Abkhazia lived not long ago (at least until the time when filming was taking place) and which for 30 years became their only home and "land," instead of the real one. And which is slowly becoming empty in front of our eyes. And it will be empty until the last inhabitant closes the door of his possessed shelter (not so useful for living, uncomfortable, unorganized - leaving the impression of being temporary). At present, this last door might be already closed.
The film "Hotel "Metalurg," like the Hotel "Metalurg" itself, combines several fragments of the history of Georgia and is a metaphor of a long time, divided into different parts. It represents the Soviet era and the memory of the time when, depending on the situation at that time, there were departmental sanatoriums or hotels, in which the workers used to rest and improve their health with appropriate holidays, in order to achieve new labor successes.
The hotel building is a typical example of Stalinist-Empire architecture, in fact, a palace-like building - with pseudo-antique columns, colonnades, a large vestibule, a wrap-around circular, riculate balcony, decorated with a somehow preserved crystal chandelier. A remnant of wealth and communist luxury, neglected and uncared in the post-Soviet era, a seemingly uninhabitable area where people live, which has become their only refuge.
New times are followed by new changes, when some investor, no one knows at what expense and at what price, with the desire to turn the old hotel into a new one and, with the corresponding results, offers a new residence instead and turns from the already established and accustomed housing into displaced persons again.
"Metalurg" hotel is the artistic image of all this and one of the outstanding examples of Georgian cinema of the last period, with several signs. Everything, first of all, stems from the authors’ civic position, from their indifferent attitude towards the country, the world, the condition and fate of people.
The main merit of the film is the problem and the research of the issue, which is essential and one of the most important for Georgia and the rest of the world - reality - surrounded and expressed in the natural space, which the (small) film crew found in an unexpected place.
Hotel "Metalurg" has a successful distribution and festival life - it has been shown in different cities of Georgia, France, Great Britain, Germany, Czech Republic, Hungary, Nepal and many other places. It has also been in cinema rental - in Georgia, Great Britain and France. Discussions has been with various focus groups around its topic, the problems and issues raised in it, with the involvement of professionals and directly the "main characters," sharers of fate; but the uninformed part of the society receives information about what it did not know existed and what was accidentally or intentionally left out of attention.
Another sign of distinctiveness is transferring the idea, goal, task into an artistic form, telling a story in a non-banal, non-printed and non-poster, non-replicated way (the danger of which existed depending on the relevance and severity of the topic).
The directors turn the building, which is slowly getting empty like Abkhazia (obviously, not as tragically as Abkhazia, but similar), the natural and unadorned "decoration," the environment, into an eloquent metaphor for society's existence, past, present and future. They use partially staged, but documentary and with documentary-accurate, direct shots in which the characters tell their stories. Or shots when the camera is only "watching." And life has its own inviolable flow.
Episodes are shown - from the life of the former boarding house and, this time, the refugee shelter, and even more neutral - when newly married couples go to the building (in some traditional place) to take souvenirs, videos and photos. And in parallel with the presence of residents of "Metallurg," they confirm the existence of life going on behind its walls.
During such intrusions, visitors don't care, they seem not even noticing who they meet there; nor that they meet anyone at all and that people live here. That once a common hotel building is someone's house and crossing its threshold means violating someone else's territory, someone else's space. The camera also takes them from a distance, from a neutral point, and then does not follow them anywhere.
Here they are met by women and children of different ages. Eight families, however, not one of these families is complete - someone is a widow, someone's husband has another family, even in emigration. Or they are single women, husbandless and childless. Different characters, desires, lifestyles - with their present, past, memories and all - same social status and different attitude towards life. And everyone, of course, dreams of returning home. We learn all this from their stories, from talking to each other and from a phone conversation with an old friend in Abkhazia. And even from visual material, without the author's comment.
The film shows the daily life of these people, whose monotonous course and homogeneity - however, already established and mastered - is broken by the new stage of migration. Even in better conditions, within their own walls, with their own "closure", in their own apartments. Migration from the place where some spent 30 years, some less, but all their lives. However, no matter how exciting the next "exile" may be - new places prepare new conditions and who knows, maybe even a happier life.
“Hotel "Metallurg" is not only a reminder of the war and tragedy of Abkhazia for modern society, but also of the wars that are going on in Ukraine and Israel today. A reminder of what war means in general. What traces violence leaves on people and countries, how it affects their existence and what happens to life during the war and after the war.
Daily life and new life - in anticipation of moving to a new space and in the process of moving, the next "new" life begins. Hoping that the next and "new" place will be Sukhumi, Ochamchire, Gagra, Gudauta, Gantiadi, Bichvinta, Gulrifshi, Lidzava, Kindghi or Atoni. And we all have a common dream and hope that we will meet in Abkhazia.
And it is really possible that one day, one of these teenagers (who sometimes play in the yard, sometimes in the corridors of the hotel, sometimes help their mothers, and sometimes watch the newlyweds from above with interest and fun), or someone else, who does not appear in the film, but is from Abkhazia, or lives on the other bank of Enguri river - take a memorable photo on the wedding day in Sukhumi, in front of the Abkhazian Theater or Abkhazeti Hotel, in Gagra - at the colonnades or on the steps of Gagrifshi Hotel, or on the shore of Ritsa Lake, or in Bichvinta, on the seashore, next to "Medea" or "Sea" statues. The Georgian and Georgian. The Georgian and Abkhaz. The Abkhaz and Abkhaz. Surrounded by the attentive and lively eyes of Georgian and Abkhaz bridesmaids and guests, Georgian and Abkhaz children.
Lela Ochiauri
