Episode 13: Women & Film in Early Soviet Georgia with Salome Tsopurashvili

Reimagining Soviet Georgia

One of the Soviet Union's most well known directors Mikhail Kalatozov was born as Mikhail Kalatoziashvili in Tiflis in 1903. Before releasing his more famous works such as Soy Cuba (1964) and The Cranes Are Flying (1957), or winning an award at the 1958 Cannes Film Festival, he along with Nutsa Gogoberidze (Soviet Georgia's first female director) co-directed their first film together - a documentary called Their Kingdom (1928). For decades Their Kingdom was lost in Moscow archives and was only recently rediscovered. The film is an early Soviet critique of the Menshevik controlled Democratic Republic of Georgia (1918-21) (also known as the First Republic). The portion of the film that was recently restored was recently shown at a film festival in Tbilisi showcasing early Soviet Georgian films and we were lucky enough to watch it.
This episode begins with Sopo Japaridze reflecting on the film Their Kingdom and is followed by an interview with scholar Salome Tsopurashvili. Salome is currently a professor at Ilia State University in Tbilisi, and author of an upcoming book that explores women and film in 1920s Soviet Georgia.