Feature documentary by Ana Barjadze in development sections at IDFA and Ji.hlava festivals, Doclisboa event
Ana Barjadze will pitch her in-progress feature at the three cinema events over the coming month. Photo via IDFA.
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A work-in-progress documentary by young filmmaker Ana Barjadze will feature in project development sections of three of Europe's significant festivals over the next month, from International Documentary Filmfestival Amsterdam to Doclisboa and Ji.hlava International Documentary Film Festival.
Selected for exposure at the latter two events by juries of the New Talents Caucasus section of the CineDOC-Tbilisi festival, and now also picked for the IDFA Forum, Bitter Sugar will be presented by the director to prospective co-producers and sales agents at the platforms.
Barjadze's in-progress work is a feature-length look at three brothers in a small town in Georgia, left without the daily care of their mother who has been forced by economic circumstances in the country to emigrate abroad and support her family through remittances.
There are a lot of documentaries about emigration today that show the life of immigrants. In this case, it was more intriguing and sensitive for me to show the motherless aspect of a family
- Ana Barjadze, director
The director has said the documentary is intended to illustrate challenges faced by children of parents who often only see them in video calls from abroad, reflecting a social problem in Georgia caused by emigration numbers spurred by economic hardship.
Produced by Irina Gelashvili, Bitter Sugar has an estimated budget of €150,750 and comes out of Barjadze's graduation from the CineDOC Film Mentoring Program under the mentorship of Tue Steen Müller, documentary consultant and collaborating director for the 2009 documentary Kurdî.
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