Directed by Eldar Shengelaia • 1983 • USSR/Georgia

This deft satire of Soviet bureaucracy from one of Georgian cinema’s great poets follows Soso, an aspiring novelist looking to publish his latest manuscript. It soon becomes apparent that the publishing house is staffed by a host of oblivious em...

Directed by Salomé Jashi • 2016 • Georgia

Dariko and Khaka are the husband-and-wife team behind Jikha TV: an ultra-low-budget local news station in the remote Georgian town of Tsalenjikha. The pair run the station out of their own home, chasing down stories with a sense of professional pride tha...

Directed by Tengiz Abuladze • 1968 • USSR/Georgia

Based on the works of the Georgian poet Vazha-Pshavela, this influential classic follows a Christian soldier in the Caucasus at the turn of the twentieth century. When he refuses to cut off his enemy’s hand, he is ostracised by his fellow village...

Directed by Otar Iosseliani • 1961 • USSR/Georgia

Iosseliani’s debut follows a young couple’s search for the perfect place to share a kiss. They soon find themselves a small, sparse flat whose kitchen taps, lights and cooker flare up in appreciation of their love, though trouble soon arrives in ...

Directed by Vakhtang Tabliashvili and Shalva Gedevanishvili • 1948 • USSR/Georgia

Georgia’s first musical, Keto and Kote is a baroque love story about the triumph of youth and ingenuity over cynicism and greed. Keto (Medea Japaridze), the daughter of a rich merchant from Tbilisi, and Kote (Batu ...

Directed by Lana Gogoberidze • 1978 • USSR/Georgia

A pioneering work of feminist filmmaking from the legendary Lana Gogoberidze, Some Interviews on Personal Matters is one of the most vital films produced in Soviet Georgia. The iconic Sofiko Chiaureli (The Colour of Pomegranates) stars as a jour...

Directed by Eldar Shengalaia • 1968 • USSR/Georgia

An Unusual Exhibition is a typically playful and melancholic work by one of Georgia’s best-loved directors. Charting the artistic frustration and romantic elation of Aguli, a down-on-his-luck sculptor forced to produce gravestones in order to su...

Directed by Revaz Chkheidze • 1969 • USSR/Georgia

It is the summer of 1941, and a group of idealistic Georgian students are graduating. Their hopes for the future, however, are scuppered by the impending war. Dreams are swapped for soldiers’ overcoats as they are dispatched to the front line, wh...

Directed by Tengiz Abuladze • 1987 • USSR/Georgia

Tengiz Abuladze’s black comic allegory – the first instance of a Soviet filmmaker directly confronting the legacy of Stalin’s purges – caused a sensation when it first aired on Georgian television. Unfolding over two timelines, the film combines ...

Directed by Otar Iosseliani • 1970 • USSR/Georgia

This lyrical caper, shot in gorgeous, low contrast black and white, portrays 36 hours in the life of Gia: a young man still living with his mother and struggling to meet social and professional expectations. A talented percussionist in the Tbilis...

Directed by Tengiz Abuladze • 1976 • USSR/Georgia

This adaptation of Giorgi Leonidze’s short stories sees twenty-two episodes coalesce into one phantasmagoric narrative. Set in pre-revolutionary Georgia, it follows a young woman forced into marriage by her village elders despite her love for ano...

Directed by Kamila Kuc • 2021 • Poland/Abkhazia

Kamila Kuc’s radically empathetic exploration of the de facto Black Sea state of Abkhazia raises profound questions about displacement, memory, and trauma. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, a brutal war between separatist Abkhazia and the Geo...

Directed by Dito Tsintsadze • 2001 • Germany/Georgia

Dito Tsintsadze’s anarchic hitmen caper offers a delirious account of life on the fringes of the diaspora. Unfolding in the sedate German city of Mannheim, Lost Killers sees a gang of illegal immigrants go to ludicrous lengths in a frantic bid...