{"id":205674,"date":"2025-01-21T22:56:54","date_gmt":"2025-01-21T21:56:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/iffr.com\/en\/?p=205674"},"modified":"2025-05-19T16:16:04","modified_gmt":"2025-05-19T14:16:04","slug":"blog-a-little-neon-intervention-holy-electricity-by-tato-kotetishvili","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/iffr.com\/en\/blog-a-little-neon-intervention-holy-electricity-by-tato-kotetishvili","title":{"rendered":"A little neon intervention: Holy Electricity by Tato Kotetishvili"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Georgian filmmaker Tato Kotetishvili and Dutch co-producer Ineke Smits discuss the CineMart- and Darkroom-presented Holy Electricity<\/strong>, selected for IFFR 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n

They may not be turning base metal into gold. Rather, the alchemy that cousins Gonga and Bart practice has an altogether more 21st<\/sup> Century feel. When the pair come across a case full of rusty crucifixes in a scrapyard, they have a moment of epiphany. Why not polish them up and apply a dash of electricity so they can illuminate the lives of Tbilisi\u2019s wild and idiosyncratic residents (or at least the ones \u2013 mainly non-actors \u2013 we are introduced to in the film)? What can be more nourishing for the spirit than a little neon intervention? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Georgian Tato Kotetishvili\u2019s comedy is shot through with a madcap aesthetic, topped off with a gloriously vagabond unrest of style that sees him deviate wildly from the script he has prepared, beckoning fate and inspiration (as well as his own considerable talents) to determine where the audience will be taken.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

\u201cEmbrace that change and use it\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOn the set, maybe something new will be born there,\u201d Kotetishvili tells IFFR Pro of how a scene is likely to develop mid-shoot. \u201cSometimes if we’re shooting in the streets, some new characters will appear. It is not our plan to shoot them, but people approach us and then they appear in the film. So I really like to follow the flow. If I think something isn’t going according to plan, then I will maybe embrace that change and use it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Film still: Holy Electricity<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\n

 “A modern version of a typical classic Georgian film”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEverything is improvisation and everything is anecdote. There’s this kind of black humour in it that taps very much into the Georgian film culture that was there already in the Soviet Union,\u201d agrees Dutch co-producer Ineke Smits, herself no stranger to Georgia, having plied her trade there for close to three decades with the likes of Stand By Your President<\/strong> (world premiere IDFA 2014) and The Aviatrix of Kazbek<\/strong>, which closed IFFR in 2010. \u201cTato has made a modern version of a typical classic Georgian film, which I think is great because there are many people who are trying to be anything other<\/em> than a Georgian filmmaker.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYeah, I like to work with a really small crew \u2013 if I can, with friends. And if not, with someone who can become<\/em> my friend,\u201d adds Kotetishvili. He does however draw the line at sharing camera duties \u2013 that is his sole domain. \u201cI wanted to try to work with a cinematographer, but because I’m a cinematographer myself, somehow I could not let go.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Film still: Holy Electricity<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\n

\u201cFilmmakers have to find their money completely outside of their country\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Right now, most professionals in the Georgian film industry are refusing to work with the Georgian National Film Centre, which many believe has become an instrument of the state since the Georgian Dream party won the 2020 general election, and especially since the appointment of Thea Tsulukiani as Cultural Minister.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is a grave situation for local production as most filmmakers rely on state finance. \u201cCompare it with Ukraine, or with Iran and other countries where the filmmakers have to find their money completely outside of the country. Georgia is experiencing that now too,\u201d says Smits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Which is why she co-produced the film with her new Rotterdam-based GoGo Films outfit, alongside Ineke Kanters of Rotterdam-based The Film Kitchen. Smits is also helping to finance other on-going films out of Georgia by filmmakers who are on the front line, filming the daily protests. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

\u201cIt has really affected my state on mind\u201d, says Kotetishvilii on the street protests against the Georgian Dream party<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Smits\u2019 support was invaluable to Kotetishvili on Holy Electricity,<\/strong> whose final tranche of Georgian National Film Centre support never arrived after the installation of the new Cultural Minister. The director further maintains that if he was making the film now, then the street protests against the Georgian Dream party would figure largely. \u201cIt has really affected my state of mind,\u201d he stresses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Protests do feature in fellow Georgian Uta Beria\u2019s Hubert Bals Fund-supported Tear Gas<\/strong>, including the filmmaker\u2019s personal images of demonstrations in Georgia in 2019. It\u2019s one of three Georgian films given a special platform in IFFR Pro\u2019s Darkroom work-in-progress in 2025, where Holy Electricity<\/strong> <\/em>was presented in 2023, following two rounds of Hubert Bals Fund support.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Film still: Tear Gas<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\n

\u201cI saw it develop into this kind of completely bonkers, strange, wonderful, unique film\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Smits has known Kotetishvili since he was a child and first introduced him to festival life at IFFR, suggesting that he should soak up as much film culture as was on offer. She has since become an avowed fan of his work, not least this new film.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI was in the background advising on Holy Electricity <\/strong>and I saw it develop into this kind of completely bonkers, strange, wonderful, unique film \u2013 the kind I sometimes miss in the Netherlands,\u201d she says. \u201cI’m really convinced that for arthouse films, you have to respect the crazy ideas of a director like Tato.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Holy Electricity by Tato Kotetishvili is produced by Zango Studio (Georgia), Nushi Film (Georgia), GoGoFilm (Netherlands), The Film Kitchen (Netherlands), and Arrebato Films (Georgia), supported by HBF Development (2019) and HBF+Europe: Post-production Support (2023) and presented in Darkroom (2023), premiered at Locarno 2024 (Cineasti del Presente), winning the Pardo d’Oro and Junior Jury Award.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The HBF+Europe programmes are supported by Creative Europe MEDIA<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n


<\/p>\n\n\n\n\t

\n\t\t\t\t\t

A list with articles<\/h2>\n\t\t\n\t\t
\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t