Georgian shorts, features at Brussels' eastern European cinema fest

A selection of some of the latest Georgian cinema is part of an upcoming screening programme at Brussels' BOZAR Centre of Fine Arts, where the third edition of the BRIDGES. East of West Film Days festival will run this month.

At the venue that has hosted the look at eastern European film scene since 2018, seven recent releases by directors from Georgia will be seen by viewers with a wider selection between January 22-26.

From the country's Academy Awards submission Shindisi to Dea Kulumbegashvili's "unforgettable" short Lethe, the selection will come as part of the event that explores "sometimes misunderstood and, to us, often unknown cinematographic territories" of the 'New East'.

[The festival is a] rare opportunity to discover the different facets of cinematographic creation in countries such as Ukraine, Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, the Republic of Moldova and Belarus.

A region with a distinctive artistic signature in terms of what it owes to a Soviet heritage – a heritage that the festival is also celebrating – and in the way it is laying claim to the right to emancipation" - festival team

'Lethe', a short directed by Dea Kulumbegashvili, has received critical acclaim at festivals over the recent years. Photo via BOZAR Centre for Fine Arts.​​​​​​​

In the programme, Dmitry Mamuliya's Venice Film Festival-screened The Criminal Man will be the first entry from Georgia to be seen by cinephiles - joined by the filmmaker - at BOZAR. The feature shows its protagonist witness the murder of a famed athlete and become obsessed with the incident with time.

Lethe and two other shorts are in their own sub-programme for the festival, similarly to shorts from other post-Soviet states. Kulumbegashvili's work - praised as “an extraordinary film that in a manner is not only unforgettable but also adds a step forward in cinema" at the Thessaloniki Short Film Festival - will be joined by Data Phirtskalava's Father, Fatherland from George Sikharulidze and Animal by Amiran Dolidze.

Phirtskalava was awarded for his work at the 2015 Locarno Film Festival, where Animal from Dolidze - with a young, unemployed protagonist attempting to change his life for the better through illicit means - was shown last year. Sikharulidze saw his film screen at the coveted Sundance Film Festival in 2018.

The BOZAR programme will later present A Tunnel, an International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam-premiered feature by Nino Orjonikidze and Vano Arsenishvili. The Georgian-German co-production takes a look at a rapid transformation of a quiet village in Georgia into a transit location for a railway set to form a chain in China's global Belt and Road trade initiative.

There are promises of prosperity and progress, but in the dreamy atmosphere of the fairy-tale village, the coming of the express train feels more like a nightmare" - IDFA

The Georgian cinema representation in Brussels will conclude with screenings of ​​​​​​​Negative Numbers Uta Beria - which debuted in 2019 at the Arras and Rome film festivals - and Georgia's most recent Academy Award submission ​​​​​​​Shindisi, in which director Dito Tsintsadze told an episode of a selfless sacrifice by Georgian troops during the 2008 Russian-Georgian war. The latter work claimed the Warsaw Film Festival Grand Prix in October.

The full BOZAR festival programme can be accessed on the official website here.