Director Nino Shaburishvili's debut feature among winners of Venice Biennale production platform
The Georgian filmmaker entered a 10-day residency for the platform in October, and cited the experience as having played a "decisive role" in the production of her debut feature. Photo: Nino Shaburishvili on Facebook
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Georgian filmmaker Nino Shaburishvili's debut feature The Chaos of Silence will receive production support from a platform of the Venice Biennale, after the project became the first Georgian submission to be picked among winners of Biennale College Cinema on Thursday.
The production platform picked the four projects that will receive the full €200,000 financing out of 12 shortlisted submissions, with the winning films to be premiered at the anniversary 80th Venice International Film Festival this year.
The Biennale College Cinema platform hosted a workshop last week with the involvement of the production teams for the four projects - which, alongside Shaburishvili's feature, also include The Year of the Egg by Claudio Casale, Árni by Dorka Vermes and Firedream by José Pablo Escamilla.
Shaburishvili said her 10-day Biennale College residency - which began in October and involved her alongside the prize-winning director Tinatin Kajrishvili, who produces The Chaos of Silence - had played a "decisive role" in the production of the project.
I’m delighted to share this news that my debut feature film #TheChaosOfSilence is a winner and I’ve got funding from #BiennaleCollegeCinema ???? Thank you ???? #georgiancinema https://t.co/lDq15W2Hj1
— Nino Shaburishvili (@Shaburishvili_N) January 18, 2023
She also pointed out she had received offers to produce the work in English language and receive production support from the United Kingdom, but had aimed to receive financing from the Biennale platform itself and see it shot in Georgian.
The director told the Georgian outlet Netgazeti she had initially completed the screenplay for the film three years ago but denied production support in domestic film competitions, leading the team to also submit the project for international support and eventually leading to the Biennale grant.
Filming for the feature is planned to begin in April, with the premiere scheduled for the Venice Festival in September. The team will shoot The Chaos of Silence - summarisd by Shaburishvili as a "psychological drama" - in several locations across Georgia, from the Black Sea city of Batumi, capital Tbilisi and the western region of Guria.
The director also told the outlet she was planning to cast a "recognised Georgian actor" in the work and confirmed the team was in talks with the unspecified performer, adding the project would also involve actors from regional theatres.
For Shaburishvili, the debut feature follows her short Guest, which screened at the International Short Film Festival Dresden and Aubagne International Film Festival in 2017. The filmmaker said she had aimed to switch to feature-length production after releasing the maiden work.
The new project also involves production efforts by Kajrishvili, who has earned directorial success of her own with the Best Narrative Feature Award for Horizon at the Santa Fe Independent Film Festival in 2018, following the film's premiere at the Berlin International Film Festival that year.