Section: EcoEast

GWIRABI

A Tunnel

Nino Orjonikidze/ Vano Arsenishvili
GE/DE , 2019, 90 Min

A sleepy train station somewhere in the middle of Georgia. The “Belt and Road Initiative” is to pass through here in the not-too-distant future. Hundreds of Chinese workers soon settle in the remote valley in order to, quite literally, move mountains. A large-scale project fraught with consequences, not only for the environment but also the social cohesion of the local community.

The mammoth “Belt and Road Initiative” is to serve the goal of better connecting China and Europe. What does this mean however for everything that lies in between? For the residents of a village hitherto connected to the outside world by a twice-daily regional train, globalisation initially signals its arrival via a rumble in the mountains. To a backdrop of promises of a better future, a new railway tunnel is blasted into the rock and yet the wages are too low for the Georgian workers, intercultural misunderstandings with the Chinese come to the surface and the soil crumbles under the old houses as criticism of this global infrastructure project grows. In place of better times there are doubts, strikes and a growing collective awareness that the motto “faster, higher, stronger” has the potential to leave many behind.

 Text: Bernd Buder
English: Peter Rickerby

Glad-House, Kammerbühne: original version with English subtitles + German simultaneous translation

Event information:

SlowTalk on ECOEAST
Thu Nov 10, 7∶30 pm | Slow, Glad House.

This new section at FFC discusses ecological issues and the impact of encroachment on nature and the landscape on social interaction. This year, ten films show how Georgian director*s between1934 and today deal with the issue. In "Slow" the filmmakers and experts talk about the interactions between ecology and society, industrialization and protest culture, and the role of film as a medium in the sustainability debate.

Kamera
Vano Arsenishvili
Schnitt
Nino Orjonikidze, Vano Arsenishvili
Musik
K.S. Elias
Produzent
Nino Orjonikidze, Vano Arsenishvili
Produktion
Artefact Production
Co-Produktion
Ventana-Film
Nino Orjonikidze/ Vano Arsenishvili

Nino Orjonikidze/ Vano Arsenishvili -

more movies you may be interested in

LIFE AND DEATH OF A CHRISTMAS TREE

KALĖDŲ EGLUTĖS GYVENIMAS IR MIRTIS

EVERYTHING’S FINE. POTATOES IN LINE.

VŠECHNO V POŘÁDKU, BRAMBORY NA ŘÁDKU

STRANGE ABANDONED DERANGED

HIÇBIR ŞEY NORMAL DEĞIL

We use cookies on our website. Some of them are essential for the operation of the site, while others help us to improve this site and the user experience (tracking cookies). You can decide for yourself whether you want to allow cookies or not. Please note that if you reject them, you may not be able to use all the functionalities of the site.