’Khibula’ to headline Georgian selection at Iran’s Fajr Film Fest

Award-winning filmmaker George Ovashvili’s feature Khibula will headline a selection of films from the country at this year’s Fajr International Film Festival, a major cinema event in Iran.

Ovashvili’s 2017 work, which screened at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival last year, will be one of six productions picked for Retrospective of Georgian Cinema, a section of this year’s event.

Telling a dramatised account of the final days of Georgia’s first president Zviad Gamsakhurdia, the film features Iranian actor Hossein Mahjub in the principal role.

Written by Roelof Jan Minneboo and Ovashvili, its screenplay shows Gamsakhurdia in precarious circumstances after his ousting in a coup in the midst of ethnic and civil turmoil in the country the early 1990s.

Fleeing his political foes in power, the principal character of the film is also increasingly unsure of how much he can trust his entourage and guards, as he attempts to reach a village where he has been promised sanctuary from political foes in power.

The feature is named after the village of Khibula in western Georgia’s Samegrelo region, where Gamsakhurdia died on December 31, 1993 in circumstances that remain mysterious. 

Georgian to feature 6 significant, exciting works at #FIFF36#FIFFhttps://t.co/fypweTYXdHpic.twitter.com/3tmZweoR4C

— Fajr International Film Festival (@FIFF36) 5 March 2018

The selection of Khibula for the Georgian retrospective program was revealed by festival organisers ahead of the event, with the remaining films to be named before the event.

The Fajr International Film Festival will run between April 19-27 in Tehran.