Nini Sardlishvili

When Light Behaves Differently Towards Time

Filmmaker Jan Willem van Dam made a film in Georgia, following the Revolution of the Roses in 2003, on the borderline of fiction and documentary. The film is based on 'the life and dreams' of Nini Sardlishvili, a sixteen-year-old Georgian girl. Nini tells about her life and dreams, speaks with two elderly women about past and future and walks among the ruins of a huge, burnt-out Soviet archive. She plays herself in the film, just like the other protagonist, Domestic Intelligence agent Gocha Ovashvili. He travels across the country in response to a remarkable appeal by a Georgian minister (appearing in a newscast), to ask people if they are criminals. During this futile and absurd quest, he meets mainly aged Georgians, including a shepherd and two monks, and admires the scenery.