Filmmaker Salome Jashi honoured with French prize for documentary

A still from the documentary 'The Dazzling Light of Sunset', which features provincial stories of the Georgian town of Tsalenjikha. Screenshot from the trailer for the film.

Agenda.ge, 21 Nov 2017 - 19:14, Tbilisi,Georgia

Film director Salome Jashi was honoured at the Festival International Jean Rouch in France for her feature documentary The Dazzling Light of Sunset, with the work honoured with the Grand Prix Nanook – Jean Rouch at the event.

Jashi's film was featured among 27 works from around the world selected for the International Competition program of the Paris-based event.

The selection was made by organisers of the festival to represent films exploring "social and cultural practices through original and innovative cinematographic forms".

See director Salome Jashi talk about the film at the Nyon International Film Festival last year:

The 27 works in the competition program were shortlisted from 770 initial submissions, with three jury teams awarding eight prizes to the winning entries.

Launched on November 8, the festival is screening films of its sections through a long-running program through January 2018.

The prize awarded to Jashi's documentary represents the 10th international award received by the director for her film.

Among the prizes claimed by The Dazzling Light of Sunset since its release are the top prize of the ZagrebDox festival in Croatia and the Best New Film Award of the Nyon International Film Festival in Switzerland.

It follows the daily life of a small community in western Georgia’s town of Tsalenjikha, focusing on a local TV station covering provincial stories including weddings, church rituals and more.

All this is accompanied by a visually subtle observational detachment which shows this whole mixture of outdated tradition and new customs in both an absurd and poetically gentle light”, said a comment of the work by ZagrebDox juries earlier this year.

Salome Jashi is director of feature and short films including Bakhmaro (2011), The Leader Is Always Right (2010) and Speechless (2009).

Co-founder of Tbilisi-based Sakdoc Film, she also works as producer and was part of the Caucadoc project supporting the development of documentary cinema in South Caucasus.