Georgian filmmaker honoured for contribution to world cinema

Georgian filmmaker Nana Jorjadze has received the Sofia Award of Sofia Municipality in recognition of her contribution to world cinema.

Jorjadze, who was the president of the Balkan Jury at this year’s Sofia International Film Festival, was awarded the honour at the closing ceremony of the prestigious event.

The ceremony was attended by 1,500 guests and the evening was musically accompanied by the Ukraine-based Georgian band Asea Sool.

Jorjadze is among the leading filmmakers in the history of Georgian cinema.

In Sofia she presented her latest work My mermaid, My Lorelei. The film was a romantic story whose title was inspired by Heine. Set in the beautiful and wild coastal village, the film’s characters were 14-year-old Fyodor and 18-year Nyurka. The romance between the naive boy and the local actress revealed that the true feelings were ageless and a magical love could arouse courage in the heart.

Georgia’s cinema has a history spanning more than 100 years, about which the great Federico Fellini said: "Georgian film is a completely unique phenomenon. They are vivid, philosophically inspiring, very wise, childlike. There is everything that can make me cry and I ought to say that it [my crying] is not an easy thing.”