Birdboy and the General

Filmed in parks and markets within and beyond Tbilisi, and also in the ancient hermetic cave networks of Davit Gareja on the desert border with Azerbaijan, Birdboy and the General unfolds within a specifically Georgian reality to tell a larger story of place and purpose, control and change, aspiration and refusal. Given life by the evocative creations of Abkhazian puppeteer Denis Gonobolin, it speaks to forms of belonging rooted and realised in imagination, and looks to celebrate the potency of play, something slightly absurd, a skewed juxtaposition and leap of faith, to redirect the course of events, whether personal or public.

Director: Andrea Luka Zimmerman