Lithuanian culture festival marks ties in Tbilisi's Mziuri Park

A two-day festival of Lithuanian art and culture is on at Mziuri Park, one of Tbilisi's favourite recreational areas, with music, cinema and sports of the country introduced to locals as part of Georgia's Independence Day celebrations this week.

Launching later today, the Window to Lithuania festival brings bands and screenings representing creative industries and cultural heritage of the nation, with a "synthesis of Lithuanian art" brought by organisers to mark ties between the two countries.

As part of the programme, the Skamp band of  "electronic multipart songs" will be joined by local musical artists and the audience in performances of Sutartinės polyphonic songs originating in northeast Lithuania, led by Viktoras Diavara of the band.

Contemporary jazz sound by the Big Band of the Lithuanian National Defence Volunteer Force will also take to the stage with Captain Ričardas Čiupkovas, to mark three decades of its public performances. Comprising 30 members and founded as the first official wind band of the armed forces, the group has performed in countries from Belgium to Afghanistan.

On the cinema side of events, a selection of fiction and documentary works will be screened to those flocking to the park over the two days. Among the picks are Lithuanian-Georgian director Marija Kavtaradze's 2018 feature Summer Survivors, a road drama that earned Best Lithuanian Film and Best Actor prizes at the 2019 Vilnius International Film Festival, in addition to honours at other festivals.

This event is a gift from Lithuania to the city of Tbilisi on the occasion of Georgia’s Independence Day

- Andrius Kalindra, Lithuanian Ambassador to Georgia

Filmmaker Giedrė Žickytė's documentary How We Played the Revolution, where the director's lens follow a New Year's Eve musical prank growing into a national cause of independence in the 1980s, and director Marius Markevičius' The Other Dream Team - the story of the 1992 national basketball team of the country that became a symbol of the independence movement - will also be screened.

• See the full programme of the Window to Lithuania festival

Animated films for children, display of Lithuanian photographers' works and the country's national costumes, a performance of electronic music involving singer and guitarist Victor Diawara and local musicians, are other activities and performances of the two-day celebration in Mziuri.

Organised by the Labas and Rūta Lithuanian communities of Georgia, the event is funded by the Lithuanian Culture Council and the Embassy of the Republic of Lithuania to Georgia. The event is partnered by Tbilisi City Municipality and will run through Friday and Saturday in the park located at 21, Chavchavadze Avenue in the capital.