Metabolism

Georgia, a land known for its wine, is nowadays the third largest exporter of bitcoins in the world. A country that not long ago suffered daily power outages is engaged in a highly technological form of capitalism. What's more, much of this activity is concentrated in the rural, wine-growing region of Kakheti. In the countryside, cows graze amidst internet towers and are killed by machines; drones fly over vineyards; horse-drawn carriages travel on unpaved roads where electricity poles are being repaired and labour is performed by computers. The boundary between the natural and virtual is slowly being eradicated.

The autobiography of Koki, an immortal parrot. Artist Quenton Miller portrays the life of this unique animal, a loyal comrade of Marshal Tito, leader of Yugoslavia for 35 years. A rich photographic archive relives the caged memories of this cockatoo, who had the honour of meeting Hollywood stars, and bloodthirsty dictators. A funny portrait, non-aligned with the documentary orthodoxy, that deals with the false constructions of history.

In homage to a somehow political reptile, Misho Antadze's "3 Songs for Saturn" is a portrait of an alligator captured in 1946 and later moved between the zoos of Berlin and Moscow. Told through an assemblage of archival representations of crocodilians throughout film history and a soothing Attenborough-like voiceover, this creative documentary paints a humorous picture of symbolic commodities and the cruelty of a non-human reality.

Kutaisi’s Jewish cemetery is perhaps not that different from other century-old graveyards around the country -- a stark reminder that people and cultures can slowly fall into oblivion.