Levan Koguashvili’s national bestseller-based project on Georgia’s Guria province supported by Dutch film fund

Award-winning filmmaker Levan Koguashvili has received support from the International Film Festival Rotterdam’s Hubert Bals Fund for his latest project Guria, with the feature set to portray the people of Georgia’s western province of the same name.

With the HBF announcing its spring selection for films projects that will receive support from the Fund, the Georgian director’s work-in-progress title was picked as one of two recipients of the Voices script and project development scheme.

The selection will enable the project to receive 9,000 EUR in financial contribution while the in-production film is also supported by Georgian organisations after winning the production competition of the Georgian National Film Centre.

Koguashvili has shared bits of information about the project, revealing it is based on author Giorgi Kekelidze’s national bestseller Gurian Diaries.

The film project looks to introduce people from Guria through cinematic means. Photo: Georgian National Film Centre.

The collection of stories from the province known for its subtropical climate, tea production tradition and unique polyphonic singing has proven exceptionally popular in Georgia and translated into a number of foreign languages.

Koguashvili is adapting his feature on the same theme of personalities and stories from the province, with a tagline for the film project reading “Guria is a poor region in Georgia, where people work, drink wine, sing, and fall in love.”

The filmmaker worked on the screenplay for the work with Kekelidze and Boris Frumin, with the HBF reviewers finding the story interesting enough to select it in the Voices scheme alongside Argentinian director Lucrecia Martel’s project Chocobar.

The HBF traces its origins to filmmaker Hubert Bals, founder of the International Film Festival Rotterdam, whose vision involved giving platform and support to new and established creatives from Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Middle East and eastern Europe. Over 1,000 projects have been supported by the Fund since its launch.

Koguashvili has received prizes for his previous films including Gogita’s New Life (Docudays UA Festival) and Blind Dates (goEast Film Festival, KINO Film Festival, Sofia International Film Festival).