The screening of the film Taming the Garden by Salome Jashi was surprisingly canceled by the Georgian Film Academy. The reason given by the director Mindia Esadze was that it was unacceptable for her to "show a work that causes dissent and divides society for political reasons."
As Georgian filmmaker Salome Jashi (who is GIPA J-school alumni) writes in her Facebook post, the film makes no mention of Georgian politics, and even if it did, so what? ''Yes, the film evokes a wider variety of thoughts and feelings,'' Jashi writes.
After the cancellation of the screening of the film, Jashi was offered various independent spaces for the screening by Georgian theaters and cafes, such as Café Mziuri, Haraki, and so on. All tickets have been sold and more screenings are planned in different cities of Georgia.
All proceeds from ticket sales will be donated to the DOCU/HELP fund, which supports filmmakers who address Russian aggression in Ukraine.
The plot of the film is about how a powerful man indulges in an unusual hobby by uprooting centuries-old trees in communities along the Georgian coast and transplanting them into his private garden.
Tickets for the screening can be found here.
