Locarno film fest to premiere work co-directed by emerging filmmaker George Varsimashvili
Varsimashvili was part of a workshop mentored by award-winning filmmaker Bela Tarr to produce the film set for Locarno premiere. Photo: Locarno Film Festival.
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Paris-based Georgian filmmaker George Varsimashvili will feature at the upcoming Locarno Film Festival where a collective film that involved his efforts under the mentorship of renowned filmmaker Bela Tarr will have its premiere.
Created by young directors selected from around the world, the work — titled Mountains — Loneliness — Desire — consists of 10 short works seen as novellas combined as a single tribute to the theme of highlands around Locarno.
The homage to the surroundings of the Swiss resort city was derived by organisers of the acclaimed festival, who asked Tarr (Werckmeister Harmonies, The Turin Horse) to mentor the 10 directors in creating their individual contributions.
Béla Tarr: The Hungarian auteur takes part in the seventh edition of #immagineeparola: a weekend of encounters, screenings, and discussions. Afterward, for two weeks, he shepherds the workshop Mountains-Loneliness-Desire, directed to ten young filmmakers. https://t.co/bRz5Y6lYMU pic.twitter.com/01zc0yzlts
— Locarno Film Festival (@FilmFestLocarno) November 20, 2018
The theme, Mountains — Loneliness — Desire, suggests a reinterpretation of the region’s mountains, an enthralling locale supplied by the Locarno area as a set for the shorts,” organisers of the festival said ahead of the premiere.
Varsimashvili worked on his submission alongside other Georgian professionals, with screenplay created by Giorgi Tskhvediani and colour design from Niko Tarielashvili.
Son of Georgian theatre director Avtandil Varsimashvili, the young creative holds a Masters degree in cinema from Université Paris VIII.
He has directed a number of short works including Particulier à particulier, for which he is now best recognised on the French scene. He has also worked with well-known Georgian director Otar Iosseliani on the latter’s films.
The workshop directed by Tarr ran in March this year, with the premiere set to come at the 72nd edition of the festival, set to run between August 7-17.