London Georgian Film Festival
10th London Georgian Film Festival 1 - 4 October 2026 Beyond The Village
The Village is often at the heart of Georgian cinema. The landscape itself - mountains, rivers, vineyards, isolated villages - can become a major character in the story. Exploring rural and village life offers a way for directors to bypass state interference while still critiquing society. Village settings act as microcosms to explore deeper themes—such as the clash between tradition and modernity, patriarchal pressures and the psychological isolation of citizens trapped by political stagnation.
Even for urban Georgians desiring European integration and greater mobility, the village still represents family origins, ancestral traditions and cultural authenticity. Today’s filmmakers, often caught up in the ongoing protests and the struggle with authoritarian censorship are forced to shift from traditional, state-backed productions to decentralised, international co-productions and hyper-personal documentaries that often rely on guerrilla filmmaking techniques.
Beyond The Village is also an expression of Georgian cinema and filmmakers in the World today, and for the second year, Life Through Cinema and the Georgian Film Institute, will run a workshop. Shared Frames will bring together Georgian and Ukrainian filmmakers in exile, led by Nana Ekvtimishvili and Alexandre Koberidze,
Dry Leaf directed by Alexandre Koberidze 2025
The festival will open with Tengiz Abuladze’s 1976 masterpiece The Wishing Tree, a spectacular mosaic of pre-revolutionary village life, where social conventions and rituals shape people’s destinies. The festival celebrates the director Eldar Shengelaia, who died last year, with 2 of his early films The White Caravan (1963) and the UK premiere of Samanishvili’s Stepmother (1977). We welcome Alexandre Koberidze, who will be in London for the first time, with his award-winning film Dry Leaf (2025). Ketevan Vashagashvili’s debut feature documentary, 9-Month Contract (2025), and the UK premiere of The Kartli Kingdom (2025) directed by Tamar Kalandadze and Julien Pebrel. There will be a screening of Otar Iosseliani’s Pastorale (1975), Giorgi Shengelaia’s Pirosmani (1969) as part of the Contemporary Films 75 celebrations, and the International premiere of Early Winter's Sorrow (2025) a new film directed by Akaki Shanshiashvili.
Pirosmani directed by Giorgi Shengelaia 1969
The London Georgian Film Festival, founded by British Georgian Society in 2005, has been presented by Life Through Cinema since 2010. This will be the 5th consecutive year that the festival will be hosted by London’s iconic arthouse cinema Ciné Lumière.
The full programme will be announced on 20th August 2026
The Kartli Kingdom directed by Tamar Kalandadze & Julien Pebrel 2025