Irakli Metreveli

After meeting with death for the first time, four 10-year-old kids find that their familiar enviroment has become ominous.

A young woman decides to find her house that she has been deprived of at the age of 4 due to the war. The only chance to get to the occupied area is to cross the border secretly. The border barrier, the natural dividing line, the river Enguri, all add up to the artificially-created wire line by Russian Soldiers. In search of her house, the protagonist explores lives of internally displaced persons for 24 years after the war and sinks into the art of existence that seems to be war, rather than peace. In the process, she meets with so-called 'connectors', who help her get to the occupied territory. The story portrays everlasting estranging damage occupation can bring: how it can eradicate the concept of ' home' and the comforting feeling of safety.

Winter which was not there’ can be seen as a metaphor for the liberation of an individual from his or her own history. In the film, a man watches a monumental concrete sculpture of a man being hoisted out of the sea. The sculpture is clearly reminiscent of a classic heroic monument but in a strange, and somewhat uncanny way, the face and figure of the sculpture look amazingly like the man who’s watching it rise out of the sea.

As a young couple, Nika and Salome's everyday life changes due to gravitation. Nika becomes a murderer, Salome converts to a religious sect, awaiting the end of the world. Nika's behaviour is infantile, he runs around a playground holding his newborn son Kartlos like a steering wheel, imitating the sound of an engine. Nika immediately befriends strangers; for him social barriers are non-existent. He asks questions just for the sake of conversing. Unable to follow orders, he acts his own way. Salome is childlike as well, everything unfamiliar brings her both interest and fear. Like a child, she has many stimuli and doesn't limit her endeavours. She often repeats words for pleasure and talks to herself. Nika and Salome are united by a sense of loss. Salome was orphaned by losing her parents in a car crash, Nika's father is deceased as well. Their need to be safe remains unsatisfied. Exposed people seek a strong father figure, be it Stalin, Christ or aliens.

The story centers around the Georgian family while waiting for their terminally ill mother to pass away