Ukraine, Germany, Bulgaria, Georgia, in postproduction
Director: Otar Shamatava
Screenplay: Zaza Buadze
DoP: Sergey Bordenuk
Editor: Martin Menzel
Producer: Oleg Sherbyna, Fresh Production, Stelios Ziannis/Vera Weit, Aktis Film Production, Pavlina Jeleva/Georgy Cholakov, Geopoly, Otar Shamatava, Studio O
Road Movie, 110', delivery autumn 2017
Cast:
Nika Tavadze, Joséphine de La Baume, Bogdan Benyuk, Georges Corraface, Christian Ulmen
Tiflis, Georgia 1991: Nika, an unemployed film director gets a chance to escape Tiflis, the Georgian capital raged by civil war. The Berlin zoo invites him and the former stuntman Toma to accompany Chola, the old studio brown bear on the long journey to Germany. Nika dreamed for a long time to participate with one of his films at the Berlinale but after a fire was blasting the original material of his last movie he abandoned his hope. So Chola and the Berlin zoo is the last way out.
Some days later everything is arranged to transport Chola and the van is waiting in front of the studio as a group of marauding soldiers start a gunfight. One of the bullets strikes Chola and the bear is dead….The only option for Nika is to put on a bear’s dress and to start the journey instead of Chola.
A journey full of obstacles from Georgia, through Turkey, the Balkans and Eastern Europe to Berlin is taking its course…