Short film ’Three Steps’ among Open Place Festival winners

Young filmmaker Soso Bliadze’s short Three Steps, a story of a girl coming of age in a difficult environment, was revealed among the winners at the Open Place International Short Film Festival in Latvia on Monday.

The 2017-premiered work was distinguished with the Best Script award of the festival hosted in city of Rezekne.

Written by Bliadze alongside Giga Liklikadze and Elmar Imanov, the plot follows a father and daughter living in a poverty-stricken community in an outskirt of Georgia’s capital Tbilisi. The two struggle for daily survival, sometimes by resorting to stealing.

Along with the struggle against poverty, Mariam also has to deal with the facts of becoming a woman and the fear that her father would betray her in order to make money”, said a summary of the script from the filmmakers.

The Best Script prize was one of 10 awards of the festival, with the jury team involving professor Arvo Iho, actor Lilita Ozolina, film director Christian Werner, director and screenwriter Algis Arlauskas and actor Irina Shevchuk.

Three Steps was among 25 short films in the official competition of the festival, selected from 411 initial submissions.

Imanov photographed among award-winners of the festival on Monday. Photo: Open Place Festival.

The film is the second short work by Bliadze and premiered at the International Film Festival Rotterdam in the Netherlands in January this year.

It was also shown to cinema-goers attending the Kiev International Short Film Festival in April.

The Open Place International Short Film Festival was launched in Latvia in 2013 to promote cinema in Baltic Sea countries.