Skhvisi sakhli

A deserted cemetery, the occasional domestic animal now abandoned, once well-tended citrus trees and houses now boarded up. Silent witnesses of a rural community that no longer exists. It is here that Astamur, Liza and the children Leo and Ritsa are allocated a house. As neighbours the distrustful sisters Ira and Azida, as well as the latter's adolescent daughter Nata, await. Having been forced to abandon the family possessions, mother Liza stoically attempts to set up house anew, growing increasingly apart from her traumatised husband and children, with the latter more interested in first sexual encounters as opposed to settling down.

Rusudan Glurjidze's thought-provoking study describes the parapsychological state of uncertainty resulting from the discrepancy between physical arrival and a deep-seated longing for peace using a subtle pictorial language and remarkably talented cast. This production, pitched at connecting cottbus back in 2012, was awarded the East of the West Grand Prix at this year's Karlovy Vary International Film Festival. WK