GURIA

Genre: Comedy, Drama

Languages: Georgian

Subtitles: English / Italian

Format: HD – Black&White

Sound: 5.1

Duration: 118 min

Countries: Georgia, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Bulgaria.

Year: 2026

PRESS KIT

Press kit to download here

SYNOPSIS

The Soviet Union has collapsed, but the promised prosperity has not reached Guria, in western Georgia. Electricity flickers between light and darkness, policemen steal trolleybus cables to sell as scrap, and the widower Zuriko, a forty- five-year-old hazelnut farmer, refuses the paltry sums the Italian buyers offer for his harvest.

His best friend Gela helps him search for better buyers and introduces him to potential wives, who inevitably fail to satisfy Zuriko’s disapproving ex-mother-in- law. After surviving a highway robbery, Zuriko pursues Maya, the village music teacher. Meanwhile Zuriko’s son Achi suffers his own heartbreak when the girl he loves, Eka, is “kidnapped” and marries his rival, Beso.

In Guria, Zuriko’s world shifts constantly between hardship and absurdity, beauty pageants and violence, love and sadness.

CREDITS

Director: Levan Koguashvili

Script: Boris Frumin, Levan Koguashvili

DOP: Gigi Samsonadze, Georgy Shvelidze

Decors: Kote Japaridze

Music: Georgy Gordeladze

Editing: Pia Dumont

Grading: Franck Ravel

Cast: Kakhaber Chiladze, Natia Nikolaishvili, Vamekh Jangidze.

Production: Kino Iberica (GE), Cineworx (CH), Tarantula (LU), ArtFest (BG)

Supported by the Georgian Ministry of Culture/ Creative Georgia, Georgian National Film Center, Swiss Film Fund, Zurich Film Fund, Bulgarian National Film Center, Luxembourg Film Fund, Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism, Georgian TV, Hubert Bals Film Fund, SorFond Film Fund, Eurimages, Red Sea Fund

FESTIVALS

DIRECTOR

Levan Koguashvili was born in Tbilisi, Georgia. He began his training at the Georgian State Film Institute until the civil war interrupted his studies, and he spent those years working as a television journalist. He went on to graduate from the All-Russian State University of Cinematography (VGIK) in Moscow under the mentorship of the Soviet auteur Marlen Khutsiyev, and later earned a Master’s degree from the New York University Graduate Film Program.

His work moves between documentary and fiction. His debut feature, “Street Days”, premiered at the International Film Festival Rotterdam and was hailed by critics as a turning point for modern Georgian cinema. “Blind Dates” premiered at Toronto and screened at the Berlinale, going on to win more than twenty international awards. His documentary “Gogita’s New Life“, about a man hoping to marry after a long prison sentence, premiered at IDFA. His tragicomedy “Brighton 4th” — a deeply humane portrait of a father’s devotion, set in Brooklyn’s Georgian diaspora — won three awards at Tribeca, including Best Film, and was Georgia’s official entry for the Academy Awards.