WNHERE ARE YOU, WHERE ARE YOU, WHERE ARE YOU?..

ალექსანდრე კობერიძის ფილმში, „ხმელი ფოთოლი“ (2025) განსაკუთრებული თითქოს არაფერი ხდება. ან, საერთოდ, „არაფერი“. ამ ამბავს არც სიუჟეტი აქვს, არც კლასიკური დრამატურგიული წყობა. სამაგიეროდ, აქვს მყარი და მკაფიო „შინაგანი“ მოხაზულობა და უჩვეულო აგებულება. არავის ჰგავს და „გარედან“ არაფერს იმეორებს. მსუბუქია და ნათელი, თუმცა ბევრ პრობლემას მოიცავს – პირადულსა და საყოველთაოს.  რეპორტიორი ლიზა მშობლებს გამოსამშვიდობებელ წერილს უტოვებს […]

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FORCED FRIENDSHIP CAUSED BY LONELINESS

The depiction of loneliness in cinema is well-adapted and the ways of expressing it are diverse. Directors try to convey characters’ feelings in various ways, since such topics are often successful at international film festivals. Some directors manage to do this particularly subtly, expressing inner loneliness gently, others less deeply, although almost all works have the power to give the viewer the opportunity to think. Especially appreciated are those directors who tenderly present the emotional difficulties of a person's inner state in a way that loneliness does not turn into just a spectacle but becomes a bridge between the viewer and the character. Bakur Bakuradze's film, "Snow In My Yard" (2025) observes two people’s inner ...

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AUTUMN IS AT THE DOOR

A difficult socio-political situation developed in Georgia after gaining independence. In the country there appeared lost territories, refugees, marginalized people excluded from family and society and immigrants who went to different countries to earn a living. The reflection of this diverse range of problems in Georgian cinema began with its usual superficiality. Authors limited themselves to only certain accents and concentrated on issues that were painful and urgent for society. Just as in the Georgian documentary of the previous period (1970-1980), the tendency to “aestheticize” the problem remained relevant. Georgian film director Levan Koguashvili creates his interesting works in a style that differs from this tendency. An interest in his work arose from his very first films which is partially conditioned ...

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SWAMP NAMED FAMILY

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 ...

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ONCE MORE ABOUT LOVE

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 ...

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BETWEEN LEGENDS AND REALITY

There is a clear tendency in the contemporary world cinema to search for new forms of fables, myths or fairy tales which are aimed at a “philosophical” assessment of modern society, man’s inner world, the essence of life and its values, as well as issues facing society within the free framework of the genre. The same processes are present in the latest Georgian cinema of last decade. Directors of different generations and radically different in many ways – Levan Koghuashvili with “Random Dates,” Giorgi Ovashvili with “Corn Island” and “Frost and the Little Disciple,” Zaza Khalvashi with “Namme,” Aleksandre Koberidze with “What Do We See When We Look at the Sky” and “Dry Leaf,” Anka Gujabidze with “Temo Re,” Giga Liklikadze with “Pig,...

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LUMINOUS PEOPLE

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 ...

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EPOS CREATED WITH A MOBILE PHONE

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...

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You Are Not Alone

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...

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A COURIER'S ONE-DAY ENDLESS ODYSSEY IN ONE CITY

“Temo Re” (2025), the film by director and photographer Anka Gujabidze attracted viewers and critics’ attention at the Tbilisi and, a bit earlier, Kutaisi international festivals. Its international success began at the Rotterdam 2025 Film Festival, when it was awarded the Tiger Shorts and the Netherlands Film Critics’ Awards for Short Films. These “awards” and prizes have a solid and unmistakable foundations - based on the fact of an unconventional vision, a new film language and style, a different way of presenting a literary text on the screen and the creation of a new artistic reality. Anka Gujabidze combines her two professions in an unconventional way and effortlessly breaks into the space ...

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