Films by Uta Beria, Lana Gogoberidze in Berlin Film Festival's European Film Market

Two works by Georgian directors will be presented at the European Film Market for this year's Berlin International Film Festival, with Uta Beria's debut feature Negative Numbers  and The Golden Thread by Georgian cinema's acclaimed director Lana Gogoberidze in screenings later this month.

Beria's Georgian-French-Italian co-production and Gogoberidze's latest work will be shown on the big screen of the industry and networking event programme of the festival while other cinema professionals from the country present their projects and meet foreign counterparts in the capital.

Premiered at France's Arras Film Festival in November, Negative Numbers was also shown at the Rome Independent Film Festival last year and Brussels' BOZAR Centre of Fine Arts last month. It will be seen at the EFM on February 21.

Recipient of an Eurimages production grant, Beria's work brings to the screen a dramatised account of juvenile prisoners at a Georgian detention facility being introduced to rugby by former players.

The Georgian National Film Centre competition-winning film is set in the early 2010s, when an economic crisis pushed many of the country’s unemployed youth into petty crime and, eventually, in detention. Beria's take on the real story was inspired by notes of two rugby players from their visits to the youth.

A day later, The Golden Thread will be shown with screenplay by Gogoberidze centred around an author resigned to solitude due to health issues. Her circumstances change with a sudden appearance of her relative, a former official in the USSR who had banned a book by the writer as part of Soviet censorship during the era.

A still from 'The Golden Thread' by Gogoberidze. The film features a cast of popular Georgian actors as well as filmmaker Nana Jorjadze, as well as a musical score by the internationally celebrated late composer Giya Kancheli.

Produced at 3003 Film Production, the film is the latest work from Gogoberidze, whose 90th birthday was marked in Tbilisi in 2018 as part of celebrations of 110 years of Georgian cinema. Last year the director, particularly recognised for her 1978 film Some Interviews on Personal Matters, released her autobiography.

Along with the two screenings and industry meetings involving Georgian film professionals, the country's emerging acting talent Levan Gelbakhiani will be presented to the Berlinale audience as one of 10 young performers selected as this year's European Shooting Stars by the European Film Promotion.

The European Film Market is scheduled to run between February 20-27, with the anniversary 70th Berlinale festival running between February 20-March 3.