By Alex Deleon

The Tbilisi International Film Festival (Tbilisi Saertashoriso Kinopestivali), held in the center of the bustling capital of the Georgian Republic on the outer reaches of Europe at the far end of the Black Sea,  is a relatively modest seven day event but  by no means a minor or insignificant one as is evident from the impressive guest list alone.  Among notable visitors from Western Europe this year are Erika and Ulrich Gregor, for many years co-directors of the Berlin Film Festival, Arnaud Dumatin, director of the La Rochelle international film festival in France, Helmut Groschup, director of the Innsbruck film festival in Austria. canonic British director Peter Greenaway, and from further afield Takehide Harada of Iwanami Hall in Tokyo.  Another prestige film director here this year is Serge Loznitsa of Ukraine whose films have been standard fare the past few years at all major film festivals.

The festival sections are as follows,

International Competition:

10 films including three from Germany, one each from Italy, France, the Netherlands, Belarus, Bulgaria, Georgia, Poland and Hungary. 

European Forum:

Sixteen films including works by prestige directirs Pawel Pawlikowski (Cold War) and Yorgos Lanthimos (The Favorite).

Horizons: 

Eleven titles with films from Thailand, China, South Korea and Singapore among others.

Made in Germany:

Five new German films including Quiberon, the last days of actress Romy Schneider, which premiered at Berlin in February.

Country in Focus:

 This year it is Italy with eight films, all from the current year, 2018

BALTIC States

A rich program of fifteen films from this normally underepresented corner of Europe, with the Lithuanian film Sangailė, a tale of lesbian love and fantastic aerobatics, arriving here with a certain advance ballyhoo.

Ingmar Bergman Retrospective

A broad selection of six Bergman classics plus Margarethe von Trotta's documentary tribute entitled Searching for Ingmar Bergman, which premiered this year at Cannes,

Literature and Film:

Seven titles including a film version of the Bertold Brecht Classic musical drama "Mack the Knife" based on his "Threepenny Opera", also the dramatic biopic "The Happy Prince", focussing on the last days in the tragic life of the famously gay Irish writer and epigrammarian  Oscar Wilde. Directed and starring Rupert Everett with Colin Firth.

As can be seen from this well balanced film lineup the Tbilisi festival is a down to earth weeklong event that concentrates on savvy film selection and warm hospitality while dispensing with superfluous extravagances such as Red Carpet celebrity prancing and posing.

The closing film will be "The Happy Prince" on Saturday, December 8.

Gamarjoba!

Alex Erekle, Doors Hotel

Tbilisi