Short films ’Exodus’ and ’Guest’ picked for Dresden festival screening

Audiences visiting one of the leading short film festivals in Europe next month will learn about characters of two films by Georgian directors Vakhtang Jajanidze and Nino Shaburishvili.

Around 20,000 visitors are expected to attend the International Short Film Festival Dresden in the east of Germany.

Running from April 4-9, the event will screen Exodus by Jajanidze and Guest by Shaburishvili among dozens of other productions from across the world.

Jajanidze’s work will screen in the festival’s main section, the International Competition, alongside 34 other films selected by organisers.

The Georgian filmmaker’s short follows two sisters in western Georgia’s gloomy mining town Chiatura. A story of emotional connection and difficulty of separation unfolds between the sisters after one of them decides to leave the town and move to be with her daughter in another city.

Produced by Tbilisi-based Studio Artizm, the short film won the Special Jury Prize at the 2015 Tbilisi International Film Festival.

Among various international events the production screened at the Scandinavian International Film Festival in Finland's capital Helsinki and the Maine International Film Festival in the United States.

A scene from 'Exodus' by Vakhtang Jajanidze. Photo: Georgisches Kulturzentrum Berlin.

In another section of the Dresden festival, which will focus on children’s issues, audiences will see the short Guest by Nino Shaburishvili.

Her film follows 10-year-old Andro who spends his summer days selling boiled corn to holiday-goers on Georgia's Black Sea coast. After a French family visiting his village invites the young boy over for dinner, Andro is left with a lasting impression of his interaction with the guests.

Shaburishvili’s film was a recipient of the Prize of International Animation Film Festival TOFUZI at the 2016 Batumi International Arthouse Film Festival.

The Dresden festival will celebrate its 29th edition next month. Photo: The festival.

It also screened among 400 submissions of the Aesthetica Short Film Festival in York (UK) last year and was featured at the Short Film Corner of the Cannes Film Festival in France.

The Dresden festival will also include the National Competition section as organisers celebrate the 29th edition of the festival in eight venues of the city.

Founded in 1989, the festival has developed into a prominent European forum for short films and is promoted as "one of the best endowed short film festivals” on the continent.