Fifth Tbilisi International Archival Film Festival opens with newly restored Magdana’s Lurja

The Tbilisi International Archival Film Festival opened for the fifth time at the National Archives of Georgia cinema, part of the Ministry of Justice.

This year’s theme is “Restored Memory: Archives in the Age of Technology”. On 28, 29 and 30 October, audiences will see digitally restored archival films from 12 film institutions in different countries, with programmes from Georgia, Malta, Spain, Estonia, Portugal, Hungary, Bulgaria, Croatia and France.

The festival opened with the National Archives’ screening of Magdana’s Lurja (Magdana’s Donkey), a feature by Tengiz Abuladze and Revaz Chkheidze. Shot in 1955, the film won the prize for best short fiction film at the 1956 Cannes Film Festival. The National Archives digitally restored it in 2026.

For the first time, the festival has a guest of honour: the Cinémathèque française. Pauline de Raymond, programme curator at the French institution, is visiting Tbilisi at the invitation of the Georgian National Film Centre. During the festival, she will present three French feature films made between 1928 and 1964.

The festival will also screen programmes from the Georgian National Film Centre and from the Suliko Zhgenti Batumi Cinema Museum, part of the Adjara Museum.

Teona Iashvili, Director General of the National Archives, opened the festival. Pauline de Raymond, Manana Suradze, head of the Film Promotion Service at the Georgian National Film Centre, and Giorgi Kakabadze, director of the National Archives’ Central Archive of Film, Photo and Phono Documents, also addressed the audience.

The fifth Tbilisi International Archival Film Festival closes on 30 October.

Admission to the screenings is free. The programme is available at archive.gov.ge/gemovies.