Georgian Short-Documentary Represented in Swiss Film Festival

The Visions du Reel film festival in Switzerland will screen Zura Mamagulashvili’s short film “Why Pigs Don’t Have a Name?!” next month, announced the festival today. The documentary by the young Georgian Director deals with the bizarre relationship between humans and animal experiments.

The screening at the Nyon-based festival will mark the films international debut. Equipped with subtitles, the audience will watch a Georgian documentary not yet dubbed into English.

The festival’s program has set screenings on April 17 and 20, including a discussion amongst the audience on the first date to evaluate and critique the documentary. The documentary is considered to be a short-movie as it barely passes 33 minutes, yet having already won national awards such as GIPA Doc U, a student film festival of the Georgian Institute of Public Affairs.

Film festivals provide a platform for independent movie productions to reach an international audience, and has been essential for Georgian productions in recent years. The internationally acclaimed movie Dede by Mariam Khatchvani has premiered at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, where film critics initially discovered it. Since then, the movie has greatly benefited from this momentum, making it onto the screens of Air France passengers on long-haul flights. Mamagulashvili and the Georgian film industry will hope for equal media attention during the screening of “Why Pigs Don’t Have a Name?!” next month.

The festival in Nyon will screen 174 films from 53 different countries this year, including 10 films competing for the festival’s award. The festival will run from April 13-21.

By Benjamin Music

Photo source: Visions du Reel