It all began with a casting. In 2011, filmmaker Tinatin Gurchiani was looking for young people aged between 15 and 25 who thought their lives were particularly well suited for the cinema. Older people came, and younger ones, too. Everyone was interviewed: about their desires and goals, love and war, positioned against the crumbling plaster of the pale blue wall of a gym. The shot Gurchiani used to present her protagonists is called an “American shot” and is part of the cinematographic folklore of the western movie: a frame which brings out the cowboy’s guns. Or which reveals that the gunslinger doesn’t carry guns at all.

Zaza Rusadze