East of the West - Competition 2009 / Gagma napiri / Georgia, Kazakhstan 2008
Twelve-year-old refugee Tedo, scraping a living with his mother on the outskirts of the Georgian capital Tbilisi, returns after seven years to his native Abkhazia to find his father, whom illness prevented from fleeing the conflict with his family. The Other Bank is a universal story which speaks of the consequences of war, of nationalism and of children who were forced by circumstances to grow up before their time.
Little Tedo and his mother were forced to flee their native Abkhazia during the Georgian-Abkhazian conflict. His father was seriously ill and had to stay behind in Abkhazia. Several years later, 12-year-old Tedo is trying to scrape a living with his mother on the outskirts of the Georgian capital Tbilisi. Tedo helps out in a car repair shop, while his mother works as a shop assistant. Tedo finds it hard to come to terms with his difficult situation and with his life as a refugee. When he comes across his mother with a lover one day, he decides to go back to Abkhazia to seek out his father, whom he has not heard from since he arrived in Georgia. During his wretched journey to "the other bank”, Tedo faces vulnerability and encounters hostility, but he also finds compassion. The Other Bank is a universal story which speaks of the consequences of war, of nationalism and of children who were forced by circumstances to grow up before their time.
90 min / Color, 35 mm
Director George Ovashvili
/ Screenplay Nugzar Shataidze
/ Dir. of Photography Amir Assadi
/ Music Josef Bardanashvili
/ Editor Sun-Min Kim
/ Producer George Ovashvili, Sain Gabdullin
/ Production George Ovashvili production
/ Cast Tedo Bekhauri, Galoba Gambaria, Nika Alajajev, Tamara Meskhi, Archil Tabukashvili, Temo Goginava, Jano Izoria, Lia Abuladze
/ Contact George Ovashvili, Arizona Films
George Ovashvili (b. 1963, Mtskheta, Georgia) attended the Polytechnic Institute (1981-1986) and subsequently graduated from the Georgian State Institute of Cinema and Theatre in 1996. He worked as a stage actor and director and has made several internationally successful short films, such as Eye Level (Zgvis donidan, 2005), which won an award in the Panorama section at the Berlinale in 2005. His feature debut The Other Bank was premiered in the section Generation Kplus at this year’s Berlinale.
George Ovashvili
51/53 gorgasali str. apart. 19, 0114, Tbilisi
Georgia
Phone: +995 591 010911
E-mail: [email protected]
Arizona Films
t7t, av d'Argenteuil, 92600, Asnidres/S
France
Phone: +33 954 525 572
E-mail: [email protected]
George Ovashvili
Film Director
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