Directed by Zaza Khalvashi • 2017 • Georgia

The final film completed by veteran director Zaza Khalvashi before his death in 2020, Namme is a meditation on tradition and modernity that makes exquisite use of Georgia’s mountain landscapes. At its heart, this is a family drama, centred on ageing patriarch Ali (Aleko Abishadze), a traditional healer in a remote highland village charged with attending to its revered spring water. Ali’s three sons have each turned their back on his folk beliefs, which are further threatened by the construction nearby of a hydroelectric power station; when his daughter Namme (Mariska Diasamidze) also begins to question her heritage, their close-knit community is fractured. Blending brusque naturalism with magical realist affect, this is a bracing piece of slow cinema, stunningly shot by Giorgi Shvelidze.

NAMME • ნამე
Written and directed by Zaza Khalvashi
Cinematography by Giorgi Shvelidze
Starring: Mariska Diasamidze, Aleko Abashidze, Ramaz Bolkvadze

In Georgian with English subtitles