In Fokus: EcoEast

The new EcoEast section shows films on ecological topics and sustainability. On a journey through 90 years of film history, the section demonstrates that ecological issues have not only been passionately discussed since the end of the 20th century. Eastern European film in particular developed an awareness of environmental and sustainability issues early on. How does man change the landscape and how does the landscape change man? How does Eastern Europe deal with climate change? How are large-scale construction projects that interfere with ecosystems discussed? What are the interactions between nature and man, between ecology and economy?

We begin with films from Georgia, where Nutsa Gogoberidze dealt with the ecological and cultural consequences of draining a marshland in western Georgia as early as 1934 in CHEERLESS. The long-lost silent film was only rediscovered in 2018.

 
Cheerless (Nutsa Gogoberidze GE, 1934, 58 Min)

THE HARVEST (GE/US 2019) reflects on Georgia as the world's third largest exporter of Bitcoins. Director Misho Antadze describes the relationship between nature, technology and a changing landscape.

The Harvest (Misho Antadze GE/US , 2019, 70 Min)

In THE PIPELINE NEXT DOOR (GE/FR 2005), Nino Kirtadze tells the story of the construction of the Baku Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline, against which resistance to the mammoth project is slowly rising in the affected regions.

The Pipeline Next Door (Nino Kirtadze GE/FR, 2005, 90 Min)

The series was created in cooperation with the Institute for Eastern European Studies at Freie Universität Berlin and was co-curated by Irine Beridze and Susanne Strätling.

Tickets, trailer and information about the other films in the EcoEast section can be found here.