See best of new Georgian cinema at Dutch festival

Five new films by Georgian directors will this week screen at a Dutch film festival that focuses on outstanding cinema from Eastern Europe.

The Eastern Neighbours Film Festival will run from November 9-13 in the North Sea coastal city, The Hague.

The film festival will screen some of the best recent films from countries aspiring to join the European Union, said the event's organisers.

See the trailer for filmmaker Giga Baindurashvili's short film 'Barefooted' below:

The 2016 festival will feature a special focus on Georgian cinema by screening five works by Georgian filmmakers among 43 films selected for this year's program.

The focus on Georgian cinema will be underlined by the special Georgian Shorts section, which will screen on November 10 and 13 at Filmhuis Den Haag.

A scene from Vakhtang Jajanidze's short film 'Exodus'. Photo from the Eastern Neighbours Film Festival.

The section will screen the following films:

• The Preparation by Giorgi Tsilosani: A 2015 short featuring a cast of Georgian actors in a portrait of a family preparing for the death of its elder member;
• Barefooted by Giga Baindurashvili: A story of a Georgian taxi driver on the backdrop of dull as well as unexpected developments in his daily routine;
• Ogasavara by Tato Kotetishvili: A 2015 documentary following a young couple after their decision to marry results in series of humorous developments;
• Exodus by Vakhtang Jajanidze: An award-winning short following two middle-aged sisters who live in western Georgia's industrial city Chiatura.

In addition, a separate screening will present documentary filmmaker Toma Chagelishvili's 2016 work I Didn't Cross the Border: the Border Crossed Me, which shows residents of Georgian villages neighbouring the shifting Administrative Boundary Line (ABL) between breakaway Tskhinvali region (South Ossetia) and the rest of Georgia following the 2008 war between Russia and Georgia.

See the trailer for the Eastern Neighbours Film Festival below:

The Eastern Neighbours Film Festival was restored in 2014 after a year-long break and will celebrate its six edition this year.

The festival has screened works by Georgian filmmakers in its past editions, with Rusudan Chkonia's Keep Smiling and Levan Koguashvili's Blind Dates featured in the 2014 edition of the Dutch occasion.

The full program of the festival can be viewed here.