In everyday life, people often think that quitting is not an option, that only the weak choose to escape. It seems like there is an explanation for this at a glance – someone always preaches that you need to be strong, to overcome all difficulties like David against Goliath, but in reality, starting life from a clean slate requires just as much courage as continuing on the path. Escapism, which speaks loudly about such aspects and boldly explains the situation to us, was something I noticed in cinema a long time ago because people need hope and want to find this hope ...

At the 26th Tbilisi International Film Festival, the young Georgian director Vakho Jajanidze made his debut with the film “The Real Beings” (2025), the script of which was written based on Teona Dolenjashvili’s story. The author worked on this project (a Georgian-Italian co-production) for six years. The film tells the story of two holiday-maker families at one of the resorts. They meet at breakfast, when it turns out that they are old acquaintances of each other. Due to the unpopularity of the location, they are the ...

A person often becomes a victim of his own thoughts and obsessions. Our nature is not stable enough to be free to tolerate conditions that are unpleasant for him. Frequently, simple things play on our nerves so much that we are surprised how a person can endure great pressure and pain in life, when the smallest details drive him crazy?! Or, in general, should a person be able to endure all this when we can be symbiotic creatures and help each other although it has never been so easy and might not ever be. Everyday life, routine, problems still manage to affect mental health and shake our psyche. Shota Meskhadze's student film, “Common Wall” (2020) explores...

Tbilisi in the autumn of 1952. Sololaki area. Davitashvili (present Amagleba) Street. An old vinyl is spinning and the sound of music is heard from somewhere, in the distance. Boys are playing football in the street. A car passes here and there. It is either an overloaded trunk, or a brand-new, shiny "Pobeda," or a war-torn American "Studebaker." As soon as the children hear the sound of the engine of any car, they stop the game and chase it with a babble. Suddenly, the car turns a corner and a large poster appears on the wall. It depicts a blond-haired leader worker. She is punching a grumpy American uncle, who is dropping a stack of stolen dollars. The poster has the inscription: Долой американский империализм! ("Down with American imperialism!"). Ramaz (Buba) Khotivari’s film story begins with such ...

Tato Kotetishvili’s full-length film, “Holy Electricity” (2024), which is both a feature and a documentary creates a hybrid cinema. This is not an overly decorated, artificially sophisticated or scripted work. On the contrary, the director takes a very simple and seemingly everyday story, which is the reason why the film ultimately turns out to be natural and human. It begins with the scene of Gonga’s father’s funeral. The camera calmly follows traditional Georgian customs without excessive drama. Here Kotetishvili’s main approach is visible – cinema ...

A particularly important place in a person’s life is full of those emotions that most often are killed within themselves – be it envy, regret, doubt or something else. At the same time, they are precisely such intense emotions that allow a person to see his own actions from a broader, more generalized perspective and then find himself facing a dilemma. Split personality, the struggle with his own identity and just the study of the foundations of man have been issues around which cinema has revolved since time immemorial. Examples of this are Bergman’s dreamlike “Persona” ...

A Czech photographer Miroslav Tichý said: “If you want to take a real photograph, then you have to have a bad camera.” This phrase was the cornerstone of his creative philosophy, as he was known not only for his creativity but also for the camera he built his own hands from cardboard parts with. After watching Aleksandre Koberidze’s film “Dry Leaf” (2025), one really got the feeling that this director is influenced by the philosophy of the legendary Czech photographer. This film was shown at the 26th Tbilisi International Film Festival. The cinema hall was full of viewers to see another masterpiece of Georgian cinema, which shows a 186-minute amazing journey...

You are not alone even when you consider yourself being most invisible. Just stop and take a deep breath, smile and keep walking when you think that people do not notice you, do not acknowledge or recognize you. Sometimes everything is not as it seems from a distance. You need to stand close to them to understand events well. People are not as evil as they seem from afar. They are just fighting to survive in this cruel world. Some find solace in music, some in drugs and even sacrifice themselves to it. The culprit in all this is not a specific person, but time. Time that spares no one. “Ronin was sitting on the roof of the house and did not come down to people” - this phrase...