Award-winning 2008 war drama 'Shindisi' screened by Georgian embassies abroad to mark anniversary

Award-winning drama feature Shindisi, Georgia's former Oscar selection, is screened by embassies of the country abroad to mark 12 years since the 2008 war between Russia and Georgia, with other screenings and exhibitions also dedicated to the anniversary on Saturday.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Georgia and producers of the 2019 feature teamed up to introduce the work that claimed the Grand Prix at the Warsaw Film Festival in October to diplomatic corps, Georgian diaspora abroad and other audiences.

Georgia's Permanent Representation at the European Council is also organising an online introduction of the film to diplomatic missions in the Europe-wide organisation.

Organised locally by embassies in about 20 countries including Azerbaijan, Estonia, Germany and Lithuania, the screenings brought director Dito Tsintsadze's dramatised account of an August 11, 2008 battle between a small Georgian unit and a Russian invading force in the village of Shindisi.

[Tsintsadze's work is centred around] the fate of 17 soldiers killed in a battle that took place in the small village of Shindisi. They died to enable 25 comrades to escape to safety after a Russian military unit broke a local truce," a summary from The Hollywood Reporter said.

Tsintsadze's work on the feature also earned the filmmaker the Best Director Award both at the Warsaw festival and the Asian World Film Festival in Los Angeles in November.

Georgian diplomatic offices are also organising exhibitions of photographs from the five-day war in Azerbaijan, Greece, Lithuania and Ukraine. Two other films on the subject of the 2008 conflict, the Oscar-nominated Tangerines by Zaza Urushadze and Russian Lessons by Olga Konskaya and Andrey Nekrasov, are also screened by Georgian embassies in Greece and South Korea respectively.