Synopsis

After 13 years, Tsitsi initiates a reunion of his former classmates with a seemingly harmless cause: they haven't seen each other since graduation and the reason for the gathering is to remember school and have a drink. However, Tsitsi has a secret motivation: he wants to punish his former classmate, Guga, who used to make life difficult for the entire class at school. Several male classmates gather at the school to drink and talk; as their time together progresses, Tsitsi gets drunk and tries to accomplish his goal.

Biography of the director

Writer and director David Pirtskhalava was born in 1987 in Tbilisi, Georgia. In 2011 he graduated from The Shota Rustaveli Theatre and Film Georgia State University, with a Master’s Degree in Film and Television Dramaturgy. In 2016, he graduated from Temur Chkheidze’s Contemporary Theatrical Art Development Centre at the Royal District Theater, where he specialized in Theatre Dramaturgy. Davit is the author of several full-length and short film scripts. As a director, David has shot two short films: In 2015 his short film MAMA / FATHER won the Golden Pardino at the Locarno International Film Festival. In 2018, David shot a short fiction film SASHLELI / ERASER, which also premiered at the Locarno International Film Festival. In total, both films have been selected for over 50 film festivals and achieved some notable success.

Director's Statement

School serves as the first space for people to engage in social interaction. The school age is also the time when certain life episodes become long-lasting memories, which may unknowingly have a profound effect on one’s future life.

 I was born and raised in the suburbs of Tbilisi, where I also went to school, where bullying, abuse, beating and ridicule of people was almost the daily norm. I've thought a lot about my mistakes in regard to my classmates or schoolmates. On many occasions, I found myself to have been a victim, and many times - in the shoes of a bully. This was of course unintended, the environment offered us certain conditions to us as children, and we unconsciously accepted them, with all their ugly and ruthless manifestations.

After a couple of years of thinking about school, I came up with this idea: What if former classmates were to meet each other after a long break, as if for a harmless reason, to remember their childhood and party; even if none of them have any good to remember. What if the victim were to invite the bully and orchestrate a process similar to a court trial ruled by the thirst for vengeance?

The idea is that no matter how much you are hurt, ridiculed or embarrassed, the important thing in adult life is to view all of this from a spiritual perspective, to gain experience from it, and not to become caught up in your tough past, which can make you bitter. The emphasis on Christianity is not accidental, as it teaches forgiveness, repentance, and tolerance. John the Baptist, the forerunner of Jesus Christ, preached repentance before the appearance of Jesus, without him the reception of Christ would be implausible.

I believe that the problem is relevant worldwide. I have no such ambition that people will change after watching this film. It is however possible, that some may start thinking and analyzing; remembering that we are all guilty of one another, as Dostoevsky says. The key is to acknowledge the wrongdoings with ourselves, not let them make us bitter and to live in the present, with faith for a better future and God.

Production Info:
Feature debut, Drama
 Year of Production: 2022 Colour, DCP
Length: 110 min.
Country of Production: Georgia
Locations: Georgia Language: Georgian
Festivals: Toronto International Film Festival: TIFF, Discovery Section (World Premiere)
English Title: A Long Break
Original title: Didi Shesveneba
Director: Davit Pirtskhalava
Georgia, 2022
Production Company: MILLIMETER FILM
 Executive Producer: Tedo Dolidze, Davit Ujmajuridze
Producer: Suliko Tsulukidze, Tiko Nadirashvili, Tedo Dolidze
Screenplay: Davit Pirtskhalava
Cinematographer: Shalva Sokurashvili
Editor: Nodar Nozadze
Production Designer: Berdia Arabuli, Guram Navrozashvili
Sound: Nika Paniashvili
Original Score: Nika Paniashvili
Principal Cast: Shako Mirianashvili, Giorgi Sharvashidze, Sandro Kalandadze Cast: Mariam Pirtskhalava, Goga Shishinashvili, Goga Kobalia , Davit Chitaia , Giorgi Mazavrishvili, Gigi Rekhviashvili, Bidzina Nijaradze , Zviad Pirtskhalava International
Sales Agent: Syndicado Film Sales LLC

Contact:
PRODUCTION COMPANY MILLIMETER FILM
10 A Sandro Akhmeteli Street 0159 Tbilisi, Georgia
 www.millimeterfilm.com
Contact: Tiko Nadirashvili
Tel: +995 595 39 24 18
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INTERNATIONAL DISTRIBUTION
SYNDICADO
121 Beaconsfield Avenue, #300
 Toronto, ON Canada M6J 3J5
 +1 416-533-1743 (c)
 +1 (725) 222-9383
 (w) https://syndicado.com/
Contact: Aleksandar Govedarica
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Unmistakable handwriting, bold themes and captivating images that oscillate between dream and nightmare. The work of the French-Bosnian director, screenwriter and producer Lucile Hadžihalilović offers truly exceptional film experiences, which Slovak viewers can now look forward to thanks to Cinematik. The festival will present a retrospective of the award-winning filmmaker's films as part of its 17th edition, which will start in Piešťany on September 13, 2022.

Lucile Hadžihalilović was born on May 7, 1961 in Lyon, France, but her roots go back to Sarajevo in today's Bosnia and Herzegovina. She studied filmmaking in Paris and during her career tried almost all film trades, from editing to production to scriptwriting and directing.

Lucile Hadžihalilović's filmography is not extensive in terms of quantity, but each of her works is intense and memorable, for example thanks to a unique visual atmosphere. According to her, the visual aspect of the film is one of the most important for the director, because it is closest to the language and poetics of our dreams.

Hadzihalilović handles the images delicately and patiently, he does not rush anywhere and does not reveal more than necessary. The main themes of her films include childhood and the mystery of adolescence, which she always captures in an original, but often frightening way. At Cinematika, viewers will be able to see almost all of her previous films.ucile Hadžihalilović's directorial debut was the 1996 film La bouche de Jean-Pierre (Jean-Pierre's mouth) - a disturbing drama about little Mimi, who is taken in by her aunt after her mother's suicide attempt. However, in her apartment, she meets Jean-Pierre, who has a rather inappropriate interest in Mimi. The film was shown for the first time at the Cannes festival in the Un Certain Regard section.

The director also dedicated the film Innocence (Innocence, 2004) to female heroines. This time, however, it takes us to a mysterious school, where a group of female students balances between orders, prohibitions and a new experience of growing up. The film based on Frank Wedekind's book, in which Marion Cotillard also starred, won the award for Best New Director at the San Sebastián festival.

Probably Lucile Hadžihalilović's most successful film to date is Évolution (Evolution, 2015), a chilling story from a sleepy coastal town where little Nicolas spends his days diving. However, one day he sees something under the surface that does not let him sleep - the boy's body, which then disappears. Nicolas suddenly discovers that something is wrong with the people around him. The film triumphed again in San Sebastián, where it won the Special Jury Award and the Award for Best Cinematography. However, he was also awarded at the Sundance independent film festival (NHK Prize for Filmmakers).

Last year in Toronto, the director presented her latest film called Earwig (Ucholak, 2021). Again, it brings a child heroine and a surreal atmosphere full of ambiguities, which the viewer must answer for himself. Ten-year-old Mia (Romane Hemelaers) has a prosthesis made of ice in her mouth, and her elderly carer Albert (Paul Hilton) has to change it several times a day. But when he receives an instruction over the phone that it's time to go, a new phase of his work begins: Preparing the girl to leave the house that was her only refuge. The film awarded in San Sebastián with the Special Jury Prize will have its Slovak premiere at Cinematik.
In the Respect: Lucile Hadžihalilović section, festival visitors will also be able to see several short films. Nectar (Nektár, 2014) is a mystical parable from a flower garden, where a group of women performs a special ritual around their queen. De Natura (2018) again begins with an innocent walk of a pair of female friends in nature. However, it gradually acquires a bitter aftertaste.

In addition to films from Lucile Hadžihalilović's work, Cinematik will also show a pair of films that she chose herself and considers essential and exceptional from the viewer's point of view. One of them is Valerie and the Week of Wonders (1970), a fantastic horror film by Jaromil Jireš based on the prose of the same name by Vítězslav Nezval. Its main character grows up in an old house with a strict grandmother and faces terrifying visits from a vampire.

The director's second choice is El espíritu de la colmena (Spirit of the Hive, 1973). In the magical drama, filmmaker Víctor Erice captured the inner world of seven-year-old Anna, who encounters death for the first time in the desolate Spanish countryside at the time of the waning civil war.

Lucile Hadžihalilović also participated as an editor, co-author or producer in several films by the Argentinian-French director Gaspar Noé (including the hypnotic Enter the Void / Vojdi do váktu from 2009). In the Cinematik program, you can enjoy at least part of her work once again, in the form of Noé's new film Vortex (2022), which she co-produced. The festival will screen the film in the Paths of Glory section.

The seventeenth edition of the Cinematik International Film Festival will take place from September 13 to 18, 2022. Accreditations are available until the end of August at a discounted pre-sale price on www.cinematik.sk.

EXTENDED DEADLINE: July 23rd  

Bucharest International Dance Film Festival invites filmmakers, dance artists, animators, visual artists and digital art makers to submit their works for the International and Romanian Short Film Competitions of the festival. The final deadline for submissions is Friday, July 23rd!

Through the (un)safe zones theme, the eighth edition of BIDFF (September 8-11, 2022) invites artists and audiences alike to witness art redefining its shapes in a world in crisis. The artistic formats undergo mandatory mutations: the film leaves the cinema, the dance leaves the stage, the stage becomes a space open to debates, and the reality is radically transformed by imaginative artistic manifestations. 

BIDFF #8 questions the future’s safety in the face of current events and wonders what forms of art we are heading towards. What molds will movies accede to? What topics will gain relevance as we are forced to be more aware of national, bodily, and inner boundaries? 
 

HOW TO APPLY

► We are looking for short dance films that were produced in the last two years, do not exceed 20 minutes in length and have a minimum quality of Full HD (1080p).

► The films must be submitted through FilmFreeway - https://filmfreeway.com/bidff2022 . Before submitting, please check the fee related to your category.

► The final deadline for submissions is July 23^rd . All applicants will be informed about the outcome of their application by August 1.

The board will take into consideration fiction, documentary and animation films that either use movement to explore an idea or speak about issues related to the body and the world of dance and performance. We also highly encourage you to apply if you have a short film that explores the power of art to change societies, questioning issues related to the ethics of collaboration, communication, and co-existence.

BIDFF celebrates excellence, novelty and courage in filmmaking by offering money awards for the Best International Film and Best Romanian Film.

You can read more about the submission process here, on our website (https://www.bidff.ro/open-call-2022 ).

OPEN CALL BIDFF #8 – SHORT DANCE FILMS
(UN)SAFE ZONES 

Filmmakers, dance artists, animators, visual artists and digital art makers are invited to submit their works for the International and Romanian Short Film Competitions of BIDFF – Bucharest International Dance Film Festival. 

Through the (un)safe zones theme, the eighth edition of BIDFF (September 8 - 11, 2022) invites artists and audiences alike to witness art redefining its shapes in a world in crisis. The artistic formats undergo mandatory mutations: the film leaves the cinema, the dance leaves the stage, the stage becomes a space open to debates, and the reality is radically transformed by imaginative artistic manifestations.

BIDFF #8 questions the future’s safety in the face of current events and wonders what forms of art we are heading towards. What molds will movies accede to? What topics will gain relevance as we are forced to be more aware of national, bodily, and inner boundaries?

Deadlines
→ Regular: June 24th 2022
→ Late: July 15th 2022
All applicants will be informed about the outcome of their submission by August 1st 2022.

How to apply
→ Submit your film on Filmfreeway: https://filmfreeway.com/bidff2022
→ Find more information on our website: http://www.bidff.ro

Awards & Prizes
BIDFF awards excellence, novelty and courage in filmmaking with a prize pool of 1500 euros.
Awards:
→ Best International Film
→ Best Romanian Film

Rules & Terms
The competition section is dedicated to short films only and is divided into International and Romanian. The board will take into consideration fiction, documentary and animation films that either use movement to explore an idea or speak about issues related to the body and the world of dance and performance. We also highly encourage you to apply if you have a short film that explores the future of art, questioning issues related to the ethics of collaboration, communication, and co-existence.

We are looking for:
→ short dance films of a maximum of 20 minutes, produced in the last two years;
→ short dance films in the genres of dance film, screen-dance, dance for camera, musical, animation, fiction or documentary about the body or the world of dance, experimental shorts conceptually oriented around the idea of movement;
→ short dance films with a minimum quality of Full HD (1920 x 1080);
→ each director can submit a maximum of two films.

We are NOT looking for:
→ music videos, trailers or recordings of performances, films already submitted in the previous years to BIDFF, one-minute films, commercials, home-made videos;

We offer:
→ money awards for Best International Film and Best Romanian Film;
→ free entry to all the events of the festival, excluding workshops that require a previous application.

BIDFF is a platform for exquisite films that use movement as their main language or the body as their main subject. Faced with the camera lenses, the body becomes the main focus of cutting-edge arthouse films with a sometimes transparent, sometimes coded meaning, but always challenging the viewer to a playful exchange of information about social life, politics, extreme emotions, interesting places and oddly beautiful aesthetics.
The festival takes place each year in September, in multiple locations from Bucharest, Romania.
Besides film screenings, BIDFF organizes panels, exhibitions, public presentations and film production labs.

Contact details: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Sundance, IDFA or True/False will meet at the dok.incubator workshop to exclusively watch the international documentaries in progress and choose the best fit for their competitions. This unique event of the documentary industry bringing together over 100 professionals from more than 25 countries will take place in Olomouc, Czech Republic from June 19 to 26.

"dok.incubator can be a real transformation for a film. I remember a documentary that I didn't trust much at first, but then I saw it at a dok.incubator workshop and was amazed by the fundamental shift in its narrative. So, I am always looking forward to what the next editions of the workshop bring," says one of the former guests, Joost Damen from IDFA, a festival that will be represented by programmer Laura van Halsema this year. Representatives of international festivals such as Basil Tsiokos from Sundance, Madeline Robert from Visions du Réel and Amir George from True/False will also be looking for films for their competition sections at the workshop. This concept has helped 13 films from dok.incubator to win an award at Sundance and almost thirty of them to succeeded at IDFA, CPH:DOX or Hot Docs.

Together with sales agents from Deckert Distribution, Cinephil, Lightdox, broadcasters from ARTE and HBO and other experts, the programmers will share their knowledge of the current situation in documentary industry and the effects of covid pandemic on film distribution during sessions open to film professionals. Then they will attend meetings with the filmmakers from eight international, four Czech and four Slovak projects taking part in the 2022 edition of dok.incubator and also 7 film teams participating in the open program. That makes the second workshop session the biggest dok.incubator event of the year with more than one hundred guests and participants who will work together on 23 films.

Full list of guests for the 2^nd session of dok.incubator can be found here.

dok.incubator is a think-tank founded in 2010 by experienced training providers to help documentary filmmaking survive the current media crisis. It is an eight-month long rough-cut workshop for 8 international and 8 Czech and Slovak creative teams (director, editor, producer) with ambitions to enter the international market with their films. Our tutors lead the workshop participants to conclude the strongest possible dramaturgy of their final cut and to reach a wide international audience by building a clever distribution strategy using new digital technologies and smart online marketing tools.

Sarajevo Film Festival is honored to announce a new development award - Female Voices CineLink Award (€10,000 in cash) presented by the Slovenian Film Centre. The CineLink will present nine feature fiction and seven drama series projects in the development phase from Southeast Europe.

The Female Voices CineLink Award is granted to one project in the development participating in CineLink Co-Production or Drama strands with an aim to support and promote female voices in the Southeast European film industry. The director of the Slovenian Film Centre, Nataša Bučar shared a motivation behind the award:

"The aim of the Female Voices CineLink Award is to encourage the creation of new stories revealing women’s previously unstated outlooks on the past and fresh approaches to the stories from the present. Everything has already been shown before. However, the strength of every new film story and film character lies in novel approaches and original perspectives.  In recent years, women authors have been enriching the global audiovisual industry more than ever, and we also wish to promote the feminine worldview in our regional audiovisual works."

In order to cater the specific needs of each project and to prepare them for the market exposure, this year, CineLink Industry Days has developed a range of activities, starting with CineLink Workshop in June, one-on-one meetings during the Festival (August 15 –18), that will continue with online meetings in September. CineLink Team strives to improve the production value by matchmaking the projects with various decision makers in the fields of production, financing, distribution and sales, as well as offers to aid in script development through extensive sessions. Moreover, the CineLink Co-Production Market offers following cash awards: Eurimages Co-Production Development Award (€20,000), Film Center Montenegro CineLink Award (€ 10,000), Film Center Serbia CineLink Award (€ 10,000) and ARTEKino International Prize (€ 6,000), while the CineLink Drama offers two awards: Croatian Audiovisual Center Drama Award (€15,000) and TV Drama Vision Pitch Award - one project selected to be presented at TV Drama Vision in Göteborg.

To find out selected projects for CineLink Co-Production Market and CineLink Drama click HERE.