A small town in Georgia, Agara. Three brothers are huddled together over a video call from their mother, who went abroad for work. Their father is there, barely visible, appearing after dark. Ultimately, both parents are absent, trying to provide for the family from elsewhere. The town where the brothers live is a quiet place, having been left almost empty after its main factory closed its doors. Filling these absences, the brothers find their own ways of re-inventing family dynamics and relations.
“Emigration is a very topical issue in Georgia and not only in Georgia. It is the problem of every poor country. Living in Europe, I'm sure that everyone has come across women from far away countries who clean, do other menial jobs, even babysit kids for little money, or even for undeclared money. Lots of women leave their countries to get a job and save their families, but is missing the childhood of your children such a survival solution?”, Ana Barjadze told FNE.
The shooting took place throughout 2020-2022 in Agara. It will be completed by the summer of 2022 and the editing will start in November 2022.
The film is produced by Irina Gelashvili through 17/07 Productions. The project received support of 20,000 EUR / 70,000 GEL from the Georgian National Film Center in 2021. The project team is working on coproduction and the total budget is unknown at this stage. The project is the winner of the Adami Media Prize Project Pitching.
"The project has been developed on many platforms, international markets and workshops, including the Cinedoc - Mentoring Programme, the B2B project development programme in Kyiv, the B2B Directors cinematic language programme in Yerevan (within the Golden Apricot Yerevan FF), the DocLisaboa - Nebulae pitching, IDFA – Producers Connection pitching, EsoDoc and the Ji.hlava Academy. We are currently invited to Doc Fest Munchen's industrial platform," Irina Gelashvili told FNE.
The exact date of the premiere is not yet known. “Since so many platforms and festivals are interested in our project, we hope that it will take place at an A-class film festival,” Gelashvili also said.
Ana Barjadze was born in Gori, Georgia, in 1998 and graduated in Documentary film directing from the Shota Rustaveli Theatre and Film Georgia State University. She has made three short documentaries. She is also a photographer.
Production Information:
Producer:
17/07 (Georgia)
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Credits:
Director: Ana Barjadze
Producer: Irina Gelashvili
DoP: Davit Chkhaidze
Editor: Kasia Boniechka
