Guria

The Soviet Union has collapsed, but the promised prosperity has not reached Guria, Western Georgia. Electricity flickers between light and darkness, policemen steal trolleybus cables to sell as scrap and widower Zuriko, a 45-year-old hazelnut farmer, refuses the paltry sums Italian buyers offer for his harvest. His best friend Gela helps him search for better buyers and introduces him to potential wives, who inevitably fail to satisfy Zuriko’s disapproving ex mother-in-law.
After surviving a highway robbery, Zuriko pursues Maya, the village music teacher. Meanwhile, Zuriko’s son Achi suffers his own heartbreak when the girl he loves, Eka, is “kidnapped” and marries his rival, Besso. In Guria, Zuriko’s world shifts constantly between hardship and absurdity, beauty pageants and violence, love and sadness.

Guria is about ordinary people who live under harsh conditions yet manage to preserve their humanity. They are far from perfect – in fact, they often behave quite badly. But they are capable of friendship and empathy. They cry, they laugh, they shout, they fight, they love – and in our increasingly sterile times, that already means a lot.
They live in Guria, a region in western Georgia – though in our film it is more than a geographic location; it is a state of mind. Guria is one of the poorest yet most talented regions in Georgia. Elsewhere in the country, songs are sung in threepart harmony; here, they sing in five, and sometimes even more.
Poverty is a real-life hardship, but for cinema it is a rich source of stories. Raw poverty alone, though, is not enough. Inspiration requires something more – call it lightness, lyricism, humour, the absurd, sadness. Guria has all of these in abundance: a blend of impoverishment and self-irony, sadness and laughter. It is a natural cradle of tragicomedy, the genre I love most.
I wanted to make a film about ordinary people without ideological trends or political agendas. Just pure living. Just pure cinema. Just pure Guria.

PRODUCTION 1:
Kino Iberica - Olena Yershova, Levan Koguashvili, Boris Frumin
Melikishvili 13
0179 Tbilisi, Georgia
Tel: +995 595139195
E-mail: olena@gtatofilm.com
Social Media: @tatofilm - Instagram, Olena Yershova - Facebook

PRODUCTION 2:
Cineworx Filmproduktion - Pascal Traechslin
Bellerivestrasse 5
8008 Zürich, Switzerland
Tel: +41 44 5004081
E-mail: traechslin@cineworxfilmproduktion.ch
Web: https://cineworxfilmproduktion.ch/aktuell/
Social Media: Cineworx filmproduktion - Facebook, Cineworx- LinkedIn

PRODUCTION 3:
Tarantula Luxembourg - Donato Rotunno
Rue du Cimetière, 1
1338 Luxembourg, Luxembourg
Tel: +352 26 49 611
E-mail: donato@tarantula.lu
Web: http://www.tarantula.lu/
Social Media: @tarantulaluxembourg – Instagram, Tarantula Luxembourg - Facebook, Tarantula Luxembourg – LinkedIn

PRODUCTION 4:
Art Fest - Stefan Kitanov
20 Serdika Str.
1000 Sofia, Bulgaria
Tel: +359 885 901 638
E-mail: kita@siff.bg; stefankitanov1961@gmail.com

OTHER PRODUCTIONS:
Olena Yershova - TatoFilm
Kanat Doğramacı - Maya Films
Elisa Fernanda Pirir - Staer Film
Red Sea Fund - Red Sea Fund

WORLD SALES:
Kino Iberica - Olena Yershova
Melikishvili 13
0179 Tbilisi, Georgia
Tel: +380 960699660
E-mail: olena@tatofilm.com

PRESS OFFICE:
Team PR
Maya Kent: mkent@teampr.co.uk
Emma McCorkell: emccorkell@teampr.co.uk