‘Anna’s Life’ Takes First International Prize
A feature-length film by Nino Basilaia ‘Anna’s Life’ received a Merit Award at the International Film Festival ‘Construir Cine’ in Argentina. This is first international recognition for the film about the difficult fate of a single mother.
The Construir Cine International Film Festival itself has a consistent focus on the subject of work and workers. This year’s festival presented 40 films by directors from Chile, Spain, France, Japan, USA, Argentina and Georgia and took place in Buenos Aires from May 2 to 10.
‘Anna’s Life’ is a story of a young Georgian single mother called Anna, who, hoping to improve her own living conditions and the life of her autistic son, who lives in a children’s home, decides to go and find work in the United States. However, the US embassy does not give her a visa. Taking a risk, she then sells her house and the gives money to an unknown man who promises to get her the required visa. Inevitably, he turns out to be an ordinary crook and the turns Anna’s life upside down.
The two other main awards presented were the Best Feature Film, which went to ‘The Woman of Mud’ by Chilean director Sergio Castro San Martin, and the Award for Excellence, which judges presented to Japanese filmmaker Naomi Kawase for her work ‘A Bakery in Tokyo’.
Georgian actress Ekaterine Demetradze portrays the principal character of ‘Anna’s Life’. The film is a winner of a competition organized by the Georgian National Film Center.
The world premiere of ‘Anna’s Life’ took place at the Göteborg International Film Festival (GIFF) in Sweden where it was nominated for an Ingmar Bergman Award. The film was also selected alongside 300 others to be screened at the Beijing International Film Festival last month.
The 3rd International Film Festival Construir Cine was held in Buenos Aires with the support of the National Institute of Cinema and Audiovisual Arts of Argentina. The main purpose of the festival is stimulating the creativity of contemporary filmmakers and supporting the production of independent films which describe the world of ordinary workers.
Eka Karsaulidze