A masterclass with the groundbreaking filmmaker Nana Ekvtimishvili, whose films have been defined as the rebirth of Georgian cinema.

Nana Ekvtimishvili is a highly acclaimed Georgian filmmaker and writer. Her films have been described by critics as the new wave and even as a rebirth of Georgian cinema. Ekvtimishvili’s films, co-directed with her partner Simon Groß, raise universal issues within their specific cultural context, often the search for female identity in modern patriarchal Georgian society. Their camera clings to their protagonists and faithfully conveys their subjective experiences as they deal with surprising and compelling emotional vortices. The social conflicts and cultural tensions may remain out of the frame or in the background, But they surround the events and give the characters and viewers constant unrest. At the same time, Ekvtimishvili’s inventive voice infuses the films with lightness, comedy and great irony.

Ekvtimishvili studied screenwriting and dramaturgy at the Academy of Film and Television (HFF) in Potsdam-Babelsberg, Germany. Her first film “In Bloom” (2013), premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival Festival and won the CICAE award (International Confederation of Art Cinema), before winning numerous awards at other international film festivals, including in Hong Kong, Tokyo, Paris, Los Angeles and Sarajevo, and becoming Georgia’s entry for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. Her sophomore film, “My Happy Family” (2017) premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and the Berlin International Film Festival and was sold to Netflix. Her first novel, “The Pear Field”, was published in 2015 and translated into 16 languages. In 2021, the English translation landed on the longlist of the prestigious International Booker Prize.