29-05-2017

EFP Europe! Voices of Women in Film: Rusudan Glurjidze, Georgia

By
    Rusudan Glurjidze Rusudan Glurjidze

    TBILISI: One of the most acclaimed Georgian new directors, Rusudan Glurjidze, currently reaping awards with her debut feature House of Others, will participate in the European Film Promotion event Europe! Voices of Women in Film at the Sydney Film Festival in June 2017.

    Rusudan Glurjidze was born in 1972 and studied French Language and Literature before moving to Film Directing and Screenwriting at Giorgi Shengelaia’s class at the Shota Rustaveli Theatre and Film University. She considers Shengelaia as her role model.

    ”My role model and inspiration is my master Giorgi Shengelaia, who turned 80 years old recently and still wants to make films,” she told FNE. She served as first Assistant Director on The Train Went On and On directed by Giorgi Shengelaia.

    After 1996 she worked in advertising and at the Georgian Public Broadcaster and she has been working as a producer and art director of Cinetech Film Production Company since 2007.

    House of Others follows two families who survived the war but who are facing deep emotional scars as they try to build new lives. The film is a Georgian/Russian/Spanish/Croatian coproduction, produced by Cinetech in coproduction with Liga Productions, Kinoskopik, Embrio Production and Sarke Studio. It was supported by the Georgian National Film Center. The film received the Satellite Award for Best First Feature from the International Press Academy in February 2017 and it had been also selected as Georgia’s bid for the 2017 Academy Awards.

    The list of awards includes prizes at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, the Bergen IFF, the Eurasia IFF, the Tbilisi IFF and Beijing IFF. The film was also nominated for the American Society of Cinematographers (ASC) award. The DoP is Gorka Gómez Andreu.

    "Being a woman director in Georgia is not different from being a man, the biggest problem is the lack of funding. Recently more and more successful female directors entered the contemporary Georgian filmmaking scene, such as Nana Ekvtimishvili, Russudan Pirveli, Tina Kajrishvili, Salome Jashi, Russudan Chkonia, Dea Kulumbegashvili, Mariam Khachvani or Ana Urushadze", Rusudan Glurjidze told FNE when asked about the difficulties and advantages of being a female filmmaker in Georgia.

    She also added: "Young female directors (students especially) should not be afraid of the extra hardship because of their sex. Filmmaking is equally hard for anybody, but they must keep on trying until they reach their goals, and not lose hope even if the success doesn't come instantly."

    Contact:

    Cinetech Film Production
    This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
    Phone: 995 5 97 70 44 00

    Filmography:

    Nocturne (1993) – short film
    Oscar (1996) – short film
    House of Others (2016) – debut feature