Vakhtang Kotetishvili
Directing
Biography
Tato Kotetishvili was a Georgian/Dutch filmmaker. He studied at the Theatre and Film Institute in Tbilisi, and from 1981 to 1990 worked as a director at the Georgian State Film Studio. There he made the films The Train and Anemia. In 1990, he made a part of the long episodic film City Life. In the same year, Kotetishvili emigrated to the Netherlands and made two films here with his partner Ineke Smits: Rose, Violet and Lily (a satire of the Stalin era), and Nostalgia. This latter film, a documentary, gives a picture of a journey that Kotetishvili made to Georgia almost ten years after his departure. A few days after returning from his former homeland, Kotetishvili suddenly died, and Smits then completed the film.
Known For
A young man escapes from prison three months before his release, but after communicating with his father and friends decides to declare himself to the police...
The Return
A kaleidoscopic panorama of the world. A visual anthology of twelve short stories by twelve innovative directors from all over the world.
City Life
"Slightly absurdist sketch of a Dutch female reporter who gets stuck in a Georgia devoid of petrol." - IFFR
Rose, Violet & Lily
"Two years ago [c. 1997], Tato Kotetishvili went to Georgia, his birthplace, where he hadn't been for ten years. After he had come to Holland and found a partner in Rotterdam, the civil war started in Georgia so he was unable to return home. The reason to go home now was a video tape of his wedding, where many Georgian relatives, friends and acquaintances were gathered together. Kotetishvili wanted to know what had panned [sic] to them, how his family had come through the war.The result of this journey was Nostalgia, a personal documentary that shows in an associative style the effects of the civil war on the lives and mutual contacts of Kotetishvili's family. Kotetishvili found out that life in Georgia had changed; what he hoped to find was gone, had changed or become grounds for conflict. He felt an outsider in his own country. The Georgia he knew was only a memory.Kotetishvili died suddenly just after returning to Holland. His partner Ineke Smits completed Nostalgia."
Nostalgia
Tbilisi at the end of the 80s, its life, the tense expectation of changes
City Life
A young man, who loses his friend in a strange city goes to his funeral by train. The thoughts about his friend change like a scenery outside his window. The reality mixes with the unreal.
The train
In order to escape from the dishonesty and falsehood of the city life, Nika decides to enter the school of the mountain village. But in the village too Nika sees nothing but the tedium and hopelessness. Only the howling of the wolves is heard around.
Anemia
Traditionalism, cultural identity, descendants