Brussels festival to showcase Georgian, eastern European films

Classic and new works by Georgian directors will be screened among films from eastern European states at Brussels' BOZAR Centre of Fine Arts, to reflect the cinematic legacy and recent renaissance of filmmaking in the region this month.

At the city's major arts venue, a second edition of the festival titled Bridges. East of the West Film Days will see a showcase of 17 select works from countries including Ukraine, Armenia and Azerbaijan.

The countries once under the control of the Soviet empire produced some cinematic masterpieces, directed by great masters like Sergei Paradjanov, Artavazd Pelechian, Iotar Iosselani or Oleksandr Dovjenko.

[Since their independence these countries] have drawn inspiration from their cultural heritage for new areas of cinematic development and creation," said a preview for the programme.

Festival Organisers said the screenings were drawn up to highlight this new artistic development, led by women directors.

Among the showcased creators will be five Georgian filmmakers, with two film selections representing Soviet-era film heritage and the remaining three reflecting the new rise of the art form in the country.

In the former department, award-winning director Lana Gogoberidze and Kote Mikaberidze, creator of silent early Soviet-era works will be celebrated.

Gogoberidze, a 1984 Cannes Film Festival Palme d’Or nominee and 1993 Berlin International Film Festival prize-winner, will see her acclaimed 1978 feature Some Interviews on Personal Matters shown at BOZAR.

Regarded as one of the first feminist films of the Soviet era, it came from the director whose 90th birthday was marked last month in Tbilisi.

Director Lana Gogoberidze is widely acclaimed for her 1978-directed 'Some Interviews on Personal Matters'. Photo: BOZAR.

Mikaberidze's silent film legacy will be marked with his 1929 My Grandmother, banned on its release by Soviet cultural authorities for nearly four decades.

In the contemporary works' section, young creative Elene Naveriani will be introduced to viewers through her award-winning feature I Am Truly a Drop of Sun on Earth.

The 2017 work is centred around two protagonists marginalised through their racial and gender identity in the conservative setting of Georgian society, and received the Seoul International Women’s Film Festival Special Jury Prize last year.

Next, drama fantasy Namme, selected as Georgia's bid for the Academy Awards, will highlight the filmmaking talents of Zaza Khalvashi in Brussels.

A still from Salome Jashi's feature documentary 'The Dazzling Light of Sunset'. Photo: BOZAR.

Selected for the ongoing Palm Springs International Film Festival in California, the feature follows a girl guardian of a healing spring in a mountainous Georgian village.

The roster of contemporary works will also feature Salome Jashi through her documentary feature The Dazzling Light of Sunset.

Awarded at ZagrebDox festival in Croatia and the Nyon International Film Festival in Switzerland, it shows 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.

Jashi's creation also received the Grand Prix Nanook–Jean Rouch at the Festival International Jean Rouch in France.

The Bridges. East of the West Film Days festival will run in Brussels between January 16-19.