London Georgian Film Festival 2024 Georgia On The Edge Ciné Lumière 2 - 6 October

Georgia On The Edge The 8th edition of the London Georgian Film Festival takes place against a background of great uncertainty for Georgia and Georgian filmmakers. The government is increasingly viewed as anti-Western and oppressive, introducing laws intended to censor and silence dissenting voices. The recent renaissance of Georgian cinema is under threat.
This year we are showing 10 films including In Bloom, heralded by the 2014 Berlin Film Festival as the birth of ‘new Georgian wave’. 10 years since its premiere, we are delighted to welcome to London, for the first time, In Bloom’s co-director, Nana Ekvtimishvili.
The festival will showcase the UK premiere of Lana Gogoberidze’s 2023 autobiographical film, Mother and Daughter or the Night is Never Complete, about Lana’s mother Nutsa Gogoberidze, one of the first Soviet woman filmmakers. Now 95, the legendary filmmaker Lana Gogoberidze will be in London to present her film.
This year’s festival coincides with the 100th anniversary of Sergei Parajanov’s birth in Tbilisi. The life and career of one of the 20th century’s greatest filmmakers, who also spent time in prison due to his bisexuality and clashes with Soviet authorities, is a timely reflection on Georgia in 2024, as it faces an important election at the end of October. The festival opens with Parajanov’s 1969 restored masterpiece The Colour Of Pomegranates introduced by film historian and restoration specialist Daniel Bird, who will also present a special screening of the Outtakes of the film, which provide a remarkable insight into Parajanov’s creative process. Life Through Cinema presents the 8th London Georgian Film Festival in association with the British Georgian Society, which founded the festival in 2005. This year we are delighted to partner with the Georgian Film Institute, who will be giving a presentation, the Nato Vachnadze Foundation who will present this year's silent film, and 1991 Productions who will lead a panel discussion on Georgian film production.
Introduced by Daniel Bird The Colour of Pomegranates remains Sergei Parajanov’s richest work: a poetic fantasy on the life of the 18th century Armenian poet troubadour (ashugh) Sayat-Nova, who wrote poems in three languages: Armenian, Azerbaijani, and Georgian. His songs are still performed in the Caucasus today. In the original script, Parajanov deliberately structured the film as a series of tableaux whichhe characterized as “miniatures,” evoking the pictorial and narrative principles of Armenian and Persian miniature painting. The episodes depict the poet’s monastic education, his childhood inspiration from the sights, sounds, and smells in his native city of Tbilisi, his youthful love with the Princess Anna, the court of the Georgian king Erekle II, the poet’s subsequent retreat to a monastery, his nostalgic dreams of the past, his death, and his apotheosis as the voice of the people. 2 October 2024 6.30pm

Closing Film Panopticon George Sikharulidze, 2024 UK premiere

Q&A with director George Sikharulidze Sandro (played by newcomer Data Chachua) is an introverted teenager growing up in Tbilisi, with his mother working abroad illegally and his father about to abandon him to be ordained as an Orthodox monk. Sandro struggles to reconcile his duty to God and his awakening sexuality. He develops an erotic fixation with his football teammate Lasha's mother (beautifully played by leading actor Ia Sukhitashvili). 6 October 2024 7.20pm

Silent Film with Live Piano Wild West Rider 1925

Introduced by Natalia Jugheli The Wild West Rider, originally called Who is Guility?, was adapted from a Georgian play in 1925 by director Aleksandre Tsutsunava, who also directed the first Georgian feature film Qristine (1916).
Siko, a young farmer from western Georgia, joins a group of riders who leave for America in the hope of becoming rich, leaving his wife Pati to face a series of unfortunate events while he is away. The film has elements of real life events as horse-riders from Guria did actually travel to America. Tsutsunava built a pavilion to create an American circus in Georgia, and it was one of the first films of the region to include scenes with exteriors of this scale.
Pati is played by silent film star Nato Vachnadze. This year we celebrate 120 years since her birth, perhaps the biggest star Georgia has ever produced. The Nato Vachnadze Foundation was launched this year with the aim of supporting Georgian filmmaking. In June, the foundation hosted the first Georgian film awards at the museum dedicated to Vachnadze in her hometown of Gurjaani. 4 October 2024 8.20pm
Mother and Daughter 2023 Lana Gogoberidze
Durakovo: Village Of Fools 2008 Nino Kirtadze
The Whistling Blackbird 2006 Julie Bertuccelli
Introduced by Julie Bertuccelli 6 October 2024 2.00pm
Presented by Daniel Bird 3 October 2024 8.25pm
Smiling Georgia 2023 Luka Beradze
Tear Gas (Extract) Uta Beria
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