Deda-Shvili an rame ar aris arasodes bolomde bneli

Is life about meeting or separating? Georgian director Lana Gogoberidze asks this question at the start of the film, as photos appear: almost like a miniature film, she is seen as a child being embraced by her mother Nutsa. In Gogoberidze’s family of intellectuals and artists, filmmaking follows a matrilinear logic across three generations. Nutsa Gogoberidze was Georgia’s first woman director, before being separated from her family for ten years as a gulag prisoner, and entirely cut off from her censured oeuvre for the rest of her life. Together with her daughter Salomé Alexi, Lana Gogoberidze sets out to bring together the pieces of Nutsa’s life. They find her lost works Buba (1930) and Uzhmuri (1934). Lana on the set of her previous films, surrounded by her film crew family: filmmaking as a collective practice of care and tenderness. Her film is at once autobiography, declaration of love and grieving process – Lana’s legacy, which also contains that of her mother, who inspired her to create strong, free women characters who defy dark times. The Gogoberidze dynasty countered the abyss with poetry, dance and cinema – lives divided, but shared. (Gaby Babić)

Lana Gogoberidze, born in Tbilissi in 1928. Completed her directorial studies at the Moscow State University of Cinematography in 1958. Co-founder and first president of the association Kino Women International, director of directorial studies at the Rustaveli theatre school and the Studio Kartuli Pilmi (today Georgia Film). Jury member at the 34th Berlin International Film Festival in 1984. Her film Valsi Pechoraze (1992) won the Prize of the Ecumenical Jury at the International Forum of New Cinema in 1993. Member of Georgian Parliament from 1992 to 1995. Her autobiography was published in 2019.

Production Salome Alexi. Production company 3003 FimProduction (Tbilisi, Georgia). Director co-director: Salome Alexi Lana Gogoberidze co-director: Salome Alexi. Screenplay Lana Gogoberidze. Cinematography Jean-Louis Padis. Editing Lana Gogoberidze, Helene Murjikneli. Music Reso Kiknadze. Sound design Irakli Ivanishvili. Narrator Lana Gogoberidze. Production design Simon Machabeli. Co-producer Jean-Louis Padis. Co-production Manuel Cam.

Films: 1958: Gelati (short film). 1959: Tbilisi 1500 tslisaa (short documentary). 1961: Erti tsis qvesh / Unter One Sky. 1965: Me vkhedav mzes / I See the Sun. 1968: Peristsvaleba / Limits. 1972: Rotsa akvavda nushi / When Almonds Blossomed. 1975: Aurzari salkhinetsi / Commotion. 1978: Ramdenime interviu pirad sakitkhebze / Some Interviews on Personal Matters. 1984: Dges game utenebia / A Day Longer Than Night. 1986: Oromtriali / Full Circle. 1992: Valsi Pechoraze / The Waltz on the Pechora. 2013: Okros dzapi / Golden Thread. 2023: Deda-Shvili an rame ar aris arasodes bolomde bneli / Mother and Daughter, or the Night Is Never Complete.

Bonus Material