This short film captures the beauty of a process that has persisted since the Stone Age. Sharing one of the recurrent stylistic motifs of the Georgian documentaries shown here, an uncanny atmosphere is created by the use of post-production sound and chiaroscuro lighting. In effect, the removal of the bread from the oven is witnessed with the same sense of wonder as would greet the appearance of a flying saucer. When sticking the dough to the tandoor, the baker moves half of his body into this dungeon – an image at once frightening and mesmerising. Nowhere else has bread been seen like this, save perhaps for Night of the Living Bread (Kevin S. O’Brien, 1990). But this is hardly a parody: here the most essential human foodstuff meets an expressionist sensibility. In fact, along with Manoel de Oliveira’s O Pão (also showing this year), Khabazebi presents some of the most beautiful images of our daily bread on screen.

Wandering minstrel Ashik Kerib falls in love with a rich merchant's daughter, but is spurned by her father and forced to roam the world for a thousand and one nights. Now presumed dead by those he loves, he performs for the poor and unfortunate on his journeys through the wilderness. Parajanov's visually ravishing 'tableaux vivants' tell Lermontov's romantic tale while Turkish and Azerbaijani folk songs transport us into its mystical landscapes.

A short story about three cheerful road workers who help a beautiful girl catch butterflies.

Officer Zhilin, a Caucasus officer, receives a letter from his mother and returns home. He and another Russian officer are attacked by mountaineers, and Zhilin is captured without ransom money.

Dreaming of creating a Czech musical theater, not recognized in his homeland, Josef Navratil, under the pseudonym of Iosif Ratili, one day comes on tour to Georgia.

Dreaming of creating a Czech musical theater, not recognized in his homeland, Josef Navratil, under the pseudonym of Iosif Ratili, one day comes on tour to Georgia.

The adventures of a teenager who came from the city to the village for his summer vacation.

Major Zaza is investigating a routine criminal case: murder for the purpose of robbery. However, his adversary is cunning and ruthless, a dangerous and cynical repeat offender nicknamed “The Intellectual.” Exposing this cunning criminal is proving difficult.

Dangerous criminals attempt to involve children in their crimes, but law enforcement officers manage to promptly put a stop to their activities.

A group of Georgian scientists traveling to Poland for a scientific symposium are housed in an old fortress . A middle-aged man , a descendant of Polish nobles , falls in love with one of the members of the group . Love turns the previously modest , inconspicuous scientist into a charming woman . After returning from a business trip, his lover soon visits him in his homeland .