Karlovy Vary film fest set to showcase three Georgian directors

Three Georgian filmmakers will go under spotlight in sections of the prestigious Karlovy Vary International Film Festival starting in the Czech Republic next month.

Opening in the country’s western resort town Karlovy Vary on June 30, the 52nd edition of the event will celebrate the art of cinema by screening hundreds of films and hosting thousands of film-goers.

Among the films entertaining and educating viewers at the annual event will be three works by Georgian directors.

Karlovy Vary 2014 Grand Prix-winner George Ovashvili will see his latest feature Khibula screened in the main competition section.

Written by Roelof Jan Minneboo and Ovashvili, the film is a fictionalised story of the final days of Georgia’s first president Zviad Gamsakhurdia following his fleeing of a 1991 military coup against his government.

Escaping from his political foes in power, the principal character of the film is increasingly unsure of how much he can trust his entourage and guards as he attempts to reach a village where he has been promised sanctuary.

The feature is named after the village of Khibula in western Georgia’s Samegrelo region, where Gamsakhurdia died on December 31, 1993 in circumstances that remain mysterious.

The feature ‘Dede’ by Mariam Khatchvani will screen a story unfolding in a mountainous Georgian region. Photo: Cineuropa.

Ovashvili received the principal prize of the Czech festival with his previous feature Corn Island, which swept over a dozen awards at international film festivals.

The filmmaker was also picked as a member of the Karlovy Vary jury team in 2016.

Under the East of the West competition section of the event, filmmaker Mariam Khatchvani’s new production Dede will tell the story of a young woman in Georgia’s remote Svaneti region.

Her grandfather has agreed Dina to be married to a young man coming back to the village from war, however she falls in love with another warrior returning from the conflict.

Actors Giorgi Giorganashvili and Ana Makashvili play the protagonists in the short ‘Waiting for Ana’. Photo: Karlovy Vary Film Festival.

Rounding off the Georgian representation at the celebrated festival, director Giorgi Mukhadze will feature in the Future Frames section that showcases "ten new filmmakers to follow” to the audience.

Mukhadze’s 2016 short Waiting for Ana is a story of difficult reunion of two siblings struggling to reconnect until a seemingly unimportant development that brings them back together emotionally.

Mukhadze’s sensitive and intimate look into a domestic situation uses subtle allusions to navigate family relationships since words alone often fail”, said a festival preview for the short.

Casting young actors Ana Makashvili and Giorgi Giorganashvili, Mukhadze also worked on screenplay for the film.