Feature, short and animation films from Georgia in Sarajevo Film Fest programme
‘And Then We Danced’ by Levan Akin is in the main competition section of the Balkan festival. Photo: Sarajevo Film Festival.
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Four films from Georgia, ranging between short works to student productions, are on the big screen for an audience of over 100,000 cinephiles at the ongoing Sarajevo Film Festival — the leading cinema event of the Balkan region.
This year’s programme of the major festival features films by Levan Akin, a Swedish-based director with Georgian roots, as well as Irina Jordania, Rati Tsiteladze and Petre Tomadze, with the works distributed throughout various sections of the event.
Akin’s recently released And Then We Danced is part of the feature competition, bringing the story of a bond between two performers in a Georgian national dance ensemble to the festival.
In the film involving a Georgian cast, the encounter between the male artists introduces a dramatic element to the story on the backdrop of the dance troupe with conservative heritage.
In the short competition section, Jordania brings to viewers 12 K Marx Street, in which her protagonist connects to a stranger — and to her childhood — after her phone call is answered from the other end of the line she used to dial over and over again.
It is revealed that the stranger who answers the phone lives in the woman’s childhood home — the home the woman’s family were forced to leave to escape war. The two start to form a bond” — Sarajevo Film Festival.
A still from ‘Night Session’ by director Petre Tomadze. Screenshot from the film.
Rati Tsiteladze is also featured in the Balkan event with his documentary Prisoner of Society, which explores a personal experience in the realm of oppressive circumstances.
[The work is a] journey into the world and mind of a young transgender woman, trapped between her personal desire for freedom and the traditional expectations of her parents that threaten their unity,” — Sarajevo Film Festival.
Rounding off the Georgian participation in Sarajevo, the student film competition section will have Night Session from Petre Tomadze, an animated look at “how neighbours sharing a courtyard are both shaped by, and indifferent to, domestic violence”.
Find the full programme of this year’s festival, set to close on Friday, here.
Georgian filmmakers Giorgi Tavartkiladze and Rati Tsiteladze will bring their recent short works to this year’s Hong Kong International Film Festival, which is scheduled to open later this month.
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Swedish-Georgian co-production And Then We Danced will have its world premiere at this year’s Directors’ Fortnight festival in Cannes next month.
Georgian filmmaker Rati Tsiteladze has added another prize to international honours awarded to his new documentary Prisoner of Society, after the short film on a transgender woman in Georgia was singled out at the NDU International Film Festival in Lebanon.
Actor Levan Gelbakhiani, cast as the principal protagonist of the newly released feature And Then We Danced by filmmaker Levan Akin, has been unveiled as the winner of the Best Actor Award at the Sarajevo Film Festival.
Swedish-based film director Levan Akin, whose feature And Then We Danced has earned critical acclaim at international festivals since its release, has collected the latest accolade in the form of the Best Film Award at the Carl International Film Festival in Sweden.
Filmmaker Levan Akin's Swedish-Georgian-French co-production And Then We Danced has been picked as Sweden's submission for the Best International Feature Film competition at the next Academy Awards.
Filmmaker Levan Akin's feature And Then We Danced has been nominated for the European University Film Award, a prize by university students throughout Europe.
Director Irine Jordania's 12 K. Marx Street is among just 40 works selected from more than 3300 submissions to screen at the PÖFF Shorts festival opening in Tallinn, Estonia next month.
Georgian actor Levan Gelbakhiani has claimed latest round of plaudits for his performance in filmmaker Levan Akin's feature And Then We Danced after collecting the Best Actor Award at Spain's Valladolid International Film Festival last weekend, with the film itself also honoured at the event.
The festival-touring feature And Then We Danced by director Levan Akin received accolade at the Chicago International Film Festival, with the film about an emotional encounter of two male dancers joining winners of the 55th edition over the weekend.
Director Irine Jordania's 12 Karl Marx Street has been selected as a candidate for the 2020 Short Film Award of the European Film Academy by juries of the ongoing short film section of the Black Nights Film Festival in Tallinn, Estonia.