Leading Georgian filmmakers and industry professionals are banding together to protest about government interference, censorship and intimidation - and will be at the Berlinale in February to state their case.
They have turned their back on state body, The Georgian National Film Centre (GNFC), and are putting their trust instead in independent organisation, The Georgian Film Institute (GFI), which will have its first major introduction to the global film industry at the European Film Market in Berlin.
The Institute was set up in 2019 in reaction to the government’s decision to close down the Georgian Book Centre. “A few of my friends and I thought this [closure] would happen to the Georgian National Film Centre too,” said writer and director Nana Ekvtimishvili, the driving force behind the new body.
Now, the GFI is ramping up significantly. It has already received some private financial backing and hopes eventually to be in a position to finance the development and production of films.
Among those involved in the outfit are David Vashadze, formerly Film Commissioner at the Georgian National Film Centre who lost his job in one of its recent culls. He is executive director of the Institute.
The president of GFI is Salome Alexi-Meskhishvili, who is also the producer of new Georgian feature doc Mother And Daughter, Or The Night Is Never Complete from Lana Gogoberidze about her mother, the pioneering filmmaker Nutsa Gogoberidze. This has recently been chosen as a Forum Special in the 2024 Berlinale. The Institute will be supporting its screening at the Festival.
“We are going to Berlin. We will meet with all the A-class film festivals. We will meet with all the funds and we will explain what is happening here and we will be promoting Georgian films,” Vashadze, told Screendaily.
“Also, we want to bring to the Berlinale all the projects from people who are now in boycott of the Film Centre,” said Ekvtimishvili. The GFI will come to the EFM with a catalogue of new Georgian projects.
Political change
Local filmmakers have been angered by the actions of Tea Tsulukiani, who was appointed as the Minister of Culture two years ago having previously served as the Minister of Justice.
She has initiated a series of swingeing reforms across the cultural sector and was behind the sacking of several senior execs at the Film Centre earlier this summer. This followed the dismissal in March 2022 of Gaga Chkeidze as the director of the Film Centre. Critics say the Culture Ministry has been replacing the Centre’s leadership with political loyalists with little experience in the film world.
The current head of the Film Centre is Koba Khubunaia, who has no known previous connection with the film industry.
Currently, around 500 industry professionals, ranging from directors to producers, are boycotting the Film Centre. “First, they don’t want to collaborate and legitimise the changes in the GNFC, and second, they think they are already among the blacklisted filmmakers and will not be supported. They are also refusing to participate in jury sessions at the GNFC or even apply for travel grants,” explained one source.
“Maybe it’s not a big numberer the UK but here in Georgia, it is more than half of the industry,” noted Vashadze.
Government criticism
Government ministers have been openly critical of films from Georgian directors. Salomé Jashi’s 2021 Sundance Taming The Garden, about Georgian oligarch Bidzina Ivanisjvili uprooting trees and transporting them hundreds of miles to decorate his garden, was described by a member of the ruling party as a “shameful” film.
More recently, filmmaker Mariam Chachia has been threatened by the government over her documentary Magic Mountain. Co-directed by Nik Voigt, the doc is about a tuberculosis clinic in southern Georgia but again also covers the actions of the oligarch Ivanisjvili, who has close ties to the government. She has been working on the film for nine years and had no idea when she started that the prominent oligarch was going to destroy the hospital. When this happened, she filmed it.
Speaking on television earlier this month, culture minister Tsulukiani criticised the director for altering the script of the documentary, which was made with public funding. She has threatened to take the director to court over the changes.
“Our pro-Russian rulers have understood that documentary films are not just a piece of art…Of course, they were not pleased. They became very angry. There is a good side because finally they saw our work as important work. That is why they are angry,” Chachia commented to Screendaily.
“It’s an absurdity what they are doing,” the director said of the threats against her. “It is mainly a message to the young filmmakers to tell them that if you will do some topics that will be unpleasant for us, we will do some actions against you. It’s mainly to destroy new critical thinking in Georgia.”
Meanwhile, leading actor and writer Taki Mumladze, winner of the Best Actress award at the Karlovy Vary Festiva for her film A Room Of My Own, has been passed over for European Film Promotions’ Shooting Stars programme in Berlin although EFP had made a special exception to allow her to participate.
Mumladze, who has been active in protests against government censorship, is now looking to move to London on a ‘global talent visa’ to pursue her career - as she is finding it impossible to secure backing in her home country. “I want to continue my work,” she told Screendaily of her decision to leave Georgia.
Georgia has a tax incentive - an automatic cash rebate of 20% on qualifying expenditure combined with a further 5% in cultural elements - which had previously been successful in attracting international production. High profile movies to have shot in the country include Universal’s F9 (2021) and Indian action-comedy Beast (2022). Inward investment has dried up - but reportedly more because of the war in Ukraine than because of upheavals at the Film Centre.
ScreenDaily has contacted the Georgian National Film Centre for comment.
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