Spotlight on Georgia

Spotlight on Georgia

Explore our collection of classic Georgian film, including works by the three masters of the nation’s so-called “poetic cinema”: Tengiz Abuladze, Otar Iosseliani, and Eldar Shengelaia.

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Spotlight on Georgia
  • Salt for Svanetia
    Movie + 1 extra

    Salt for Svanetia

    Movie + 1 extra

    Directed by Mikhail Kalatozov • 1930 • USSR/Georgia

    The directorial debut of Mikhail Kalatozov – who would go on to electrify Soviet cinema with his Palme d’Or-winning The Cranes are Flying – Salt for Svanetia is a groundbreaking work of radical ethnographic documentary. Capturing the lives of t...

  • Blue Mountains
    Movie + 6 extras

    Blue Mountains

    Movie + 6 extras

    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...

  • The Dazzling Light of Sunset

    Movie + 1 extra

    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...

  • Some Interviews on Personal Matters

    Movie + 2 extras

    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...

  • There Once Was a Singing Blackbird

    Movie + 2 extras

    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...

  • The Plea
    Movie + 2 extras

    The Plea

    Movie + 2 extras

    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...

  • April
    Movie + 2 extras

    April

    Movie + 2 extras

    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 ...

  • Keto and Kote
    Movie + 1 extra

    Keto and Kote

    Movie + 1 extra

    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 ...

  • An Unusual Exhibition
    Movie + 6 extras

    An Unusual Exhibition

    Movie + 6 extras

    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...

  • Look at These Young People!

    Movie + 1 extra

    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...

  • Repentance
    Movie + 2 extras

    Repentance

    Movie + 2 extras

    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 ...

  • The Wishing Tree
    Movie + 2 extras

    The Wishing Tree

    Movie + 2 extras

    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...

  • What We Shared
    Movie + 2 extras

    What We Shared

    Movie + 2 extras

    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...

  • Lost Killers
    Movie + 2 extras

    Lost Killers

    Movie + 2 extras

    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...