News

A contentious Georgian film has become the focal point of an expanding international legal case threatening artistic freedom and highlighting persistent tensions between Georgia and Russia.

Georgia’s official Academy Award nomination, “The Antique,” faces a lawsuit from Russian and Croatian film producers over its Venice Film Festival screening. The legal action is aimed at the film’s production business, Cinetech Film Production, and the festival’s Giornate degli Autori Association.

The film, directed by Rusudan Glurjidze, is based on a highly personal historical event: the mass deportation of Georgians from Russia in 2006, during Vladimir Putin’s first presidential term. Glurjidze herself was among those deported, lending the film a compelling personal tale.

Moscow-based Viva Films, Pygmalion Film Productions, and Croatia’s Avvantura have filed a lawsuit claiming damages for “improper use of the film” at public screenings in August and September 2024. This judicial appeal followed an earlier emergency decree...

Exclusive: Georgian Anti-Putin drama The Antique, which had its world premiere at Venice’s Giornate degli Autori temporarily suspended after Russian and Croatian producers issued an injunction claiming copyright issues, is back in the courts again.

The film’s Georgian producer Zurab Magalashvili at Tbilisi-based Cinetech Film Production and director Rusudan Glurjidze have revealed that the production has been hit by a fresh lawsuit, in what they call “an increasingly aggressive attempt to undermine this Anti-Putin film”.

The drama, which is Georgia’s Oscar entry this year, takes inspiration from the real-life illegal expulsion of thousands of Georgian nationals from Russia in 2006.

The deportations were part of the so-called 2006 Georgian–Russian espionage controversy, sparked by Georgia’s arrest of a number of Russian military officers on charges of espionage and terrorism, when Vladimir Putin was in his first term as Russian president.

According to a writ filed at the...

Georgia has selected Rusudan Glurjidze’s drama The Antique as its submission to the international feature film category for the 97th Oscars.

The selection comes just two weeks after the feature was caught up in an unexpected legal battle at the Venice Film Festival when an emergency decree issued on behalf of Russian and Croatian producers led to the temporary suspension of its screening in the parallel Giornate degli Autori section.

The drama takes inspiration from the real-life illegal expulsion of thousands of Georgian nationals from Russia in 2006.

The deportations were part of the so-called 2006 Georgian–Russian espionage controversy, sparked by Georgia’s arrest of a number of Russian military officers on charges of espionage and terrorism, when Vladimir Putin was in his first term as Russian president.

The film revisits the period through the story of the friendship between an elderly Russian man and a young Georgian woman in the city of Saint Petersburg.

Georgian director Rusudan Glurjidze, whose drama “The Antique” depicts the mass deportation of Georgians from the country by Russian authorities, on Friday asserted that she is being censored by an ongoing Russian campaign against the movie and pleaded for support after the film was prevented from screening at the Venice Film Festival.

Set in 2006 in Russia, “The Antique” touches on the deportation of thousands of Georgians from the country at the time. It was selected by the Venice Days section, a body that is run independently from the Venice Biennale.

As previously reported, the sidebar’s organizers and the fest’s parent org, the Venice Biennale, canceled the press and industry screening of “The Antique” scheduled for Wednesday after prominent Italian media lawyer Bruno Della Ragione, who was hired by three production companies — Viva Film in Russia, Avantura Film in Croatia and Pygmalion in Cyprus — obtained an emergency injunction from...

Updated with further details: Georgian anti-Putin drama The Antique, which was due to premiere in Venice parallel section Giornate degli Autori (GdA), has had its screenings suspended following the issuing of an emergency decree on behalf of Russian and Croatian producers claiming copyright issues with the screenplay.

These claims are contested by the film’s Georgian producers and its sales agent MPM International, while the Italian media, which first reported the suspension, is suggesting the move to prevent the film screening is politically motivated.

The drama takes inspiration from the real-life illegal expulsion of thousands of Georgian nationals from Russia in 2006, which included the film’s director Rusudan Glurjidze.

The deportations were part of the so-called 2006 Georgian–Russian espionage controversy, sparked by Georgia’s arrest of a number of Russian military officers on charges of espionage and terrorism, when Vladimir Putin was in his first term as Russian president.

The...

Venice Days, an independent sidebar of the Venice Film Festival, has “suspended” screenings of Georgian filmmaker Rusudan Glurjidze‘s second feature film “Antikvariati” (The Antique).

The sidebar’s organizers have canceled the press and industry screening scheduled for Aug. 28, and the public screenings have been removed from the schedule.

The move follows an emergency decree by the Court of Venice obtained by three production companies – Viva Film in Russia, Avantura Film in Croatia, and Pygmalion in Cyprus – over a copyright dispute regarding the film’s script, according to a statement issued by Venice Days.

In its statement, Venice Days – also known as Giornate degli Autori – said: “We believe, in the very spirit of Giornate degli Autori, that our chief duty, shared with the Italian filmmakers’ associations that promote our showcase, is the defense of copyright, hence the defense of the filmmaker Rusudan Glurjidze, present in Venice. We also feel that...

Georgian filmmaker Rusudan Glurjidze’s second feature film “Antikvariati” (The Antique), which has its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival in the Venice Days sidebar, is launching its trailer. MPM Premium has acquired international sales rights to the film.

Set around 18 years ago in Russia, the film follows a young Georgian man named Lado, who is involved in smuggling antique furniture from Georgia to Russia. Tired of his immaturity, Medea, Lado’s girlfriend, buys for herself an apartment in St. Peterburg’s historic center. It is sold at a very low price because the apartment comes with its owner, Vadim Vadimich – an opinionated, old-fashioned character. At the time of the deportation of thousands of Georgians from Russia, Lado is caught and deported. The antique warehouse is raided, while Medea hides in a wardrobe.

Glurjidze claims “The Antique” may have been the last film to be shot in the Russia by foreign filmmakers,...

Sometimes ghosts are visible, sometimes invisible, and sometimes 'ghosts' are the emptiness, the palpable void left behind. And the latter can be the most frightening and sad of all. In Russudan Gluridze's feature film House of Others, the ghosts are both the living who inhabit an almost deserted village, and the void that follows them as they attempt to live some sort of life out of almost nothing. It is a remarkably assured directorial debut, one that creeps into the soul as much as it saddens the heart. Astamur (Zurab Magalashvili) and Liza (Olga Dykhovichnaya) arrive in an almost deserted village with their two children, to take over a house abandoned by a family forced out by the Georgian-Abkhazian conflict. Their only neighbours are Ira...

[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...