Georgian soldiers in training: a tough drill, push-ups on the Black Sea sands, punishment exercises in the mud. With his first pay volunteer Gurchiani buys his mother a sofa, and afterwards joins his pals at the water park. Life is a mixture of harassment and late adolescent light heartedness. On the left hand side of the screen however the clock is ticking: Gurchiani begins his service in April 2008. In August war with Russia erupts, military exercises and test alarms are transformed overnight into a bloody reality.
A nightmarish, optically-impressive real-time report on the consequences of military logic.
BetaSP | doc | Farbe & s/w / colour / b/w
Shalva Shengeli
Giorgi Sigua, Levan Kantidze
Beka Gersamia
Shalva Shengeli
Niaz Diasamidze
David Gurchiani
Vito
Producing Center Gemini
7 Svanidze str.
0179 Tbilisi
Georgia
gemini@gemini.ge
www.gemini.ge
Shalva Shengeli - born 1965 in Tbilisi. Studied firstly Architecture and then Journalism at the Georgian Technical University. Graduated in Directing from the State University for Theatre and Film in Tbilisi in 1998.
TSVRTNEBI AMERIKASI (1996, doc)
UKUETU DAGIVIWYO SHEN IERUSALIM (1999, doc)
AKET-IKIT (1998, short)
OCHAMCHIRE (2001, doc)
BAZA #12 (2003, doc)
BRIGADA (2005, doc)