Uploaded September 2026 | Updated September 2026, 10 hours ago
At the 83. Venice Film Festival, the director Levan Koguashvili and the screenwriter Boris Frumin present the film GURIA
Interview by Cristiana Palmieri
Editing by Paolo Valenti
GURIA
The Soviet Union has collapsed, but the promised prosperity has not reached Guria, Western Georgia. Electricity flickers between light and darkness, policemen steal trolleybus cables to sell as scrap and widower Zuriko, a 45-year-old hazelnut farmer, refuses the paltry sums Italian buyers offer for his harvest. His best friend Gela helps him search for better buyers and introduces him to potential wives, who inevitably fail to satisfy Zuriko’s disapproving ex mother-in-law.
After surviving a highway robbery, Zuriko pursues Maya, the village music teacher. Meanwhile, Zuriko’s son Achi suffers his own heartbreak when the girl he loves, Eka, is “kidnapped” and marries his rival, Besso. In Guria, Zuriko’s world shifts constantly between hardship and absurdity, beauty pageants and violence, love and sadness.
At the 83. Venice Film Festival, the director Levan Koguashvili and the screenwriter Boris Frumin present the film GURIA
Interview by Cristiana Palmieri
Editing by Paolo Valenti
GURIA
The Soviet Union has collapsed, but the promised prosperity has not reached Guria, Western Georgia. Electricity flickers between light and darkness, policemen steal trolleybus cables to sell as scrap and widower Zuriko, a 45-year-old hazelnut farmer, refuses the paltry sums Italian buyers offer for his harvest. His best friend Gela helps him search for better buyers and introduces him to potential wives, who inevitably fail to satisfy Zuriko’s disapproving ex mother-in-law.
After surviving a highway robbery, Zuriko pursues Maya, the village music teacher. Meanwhile, Zuriko’s son Achi suffers his own heartbreak when the girl he loves, Eka, is “kidnapped” and marries his rival, Besso. In Guria, Zuriko’s world shifts constantly between hardship and absurdity, beauty pageants and violence, love and sadness.
