Tekla Aslanishvili

The endless tests of developing a futuristic smart city and deep sea port reshape the small fishing village of Anaklia on the shores of the Black Sea in western Georgia. The documentary film investigates the material and social conditions that are produced as a result of these ambitious infrastructural investments, aimed at transforming the country into a trade corridor for the speculative New Silk Road project.

From a small Georgian mining town Chiatura, we zoom out to scrutinize the geopolitical and economic interrelations that link this peripheral site of extraction to a vast network of places, subjects and processes across the globe.

“A State in a State” is an experimental documentary film that follows the construction, disruption, and fragmentation of railroads in the South Caucasus and Caspian region. It looks at the ongoing wars and conflicts through the lens of transport infrastructures, observing how railways came to materialize the fragile political borders that have reemerged after the collapse of the Soviet Union.