At Thessaloniki Agora 2024, Sophie Shevardnadze presented her Docs in Progress project, titled Eduard. The debut feature of the Tbilisi-born filmmaker is an unprecedented portrait of Eduard Shevardnadze, a man who held power in Georgia for an extended period of time and left his post without bloodshed. The work is particularly poignant for the director as she is, herself, the granddaughter of the former Georgian leader.
At the Greek gathering, she showed some footage and introduced her work with producer Sergei Yahontov.
Shevardnadze used to be a prominent figure in Soviet Georgia’s politics. “He was USSR’s last Minister of Foreign Affairs alongside Mikhail Gorbachev. He was the architect of the end of the Cold War, perestroika, disarmament and the fall of the Berlin Wall. After 1991, he went on becoming the second President of independent Georgia and stayed in power for almost 12 years…Then he was forced to resign after the Rose Revolution [2003] took place” said Shevardnadze.
“In 2003, I was a journalism student at NYU…When the proceedings of the revolution started to unravel in late November, I jumped on a plane with my own camera, went to Georgia and began filming everything. I was able to depict the three-day, non-stop storm of the Parliament, the [subsequent] decision-making processes, the possible evacuation of the family members, the reactions,” the director explains.
“[But] the film really turned out to be – instead of a political statement – a very intimate portrait of a man and his family, and how they reacted to this situation at the end of a very important journey,” she continued.
For the helmer, the footage she has shot has been a painful viewing: “I wasn’t able to watch it for a long time because I had to digest it, emotionally and mentally. Then Sergei [Yahontov], who is a very good childhood friend of mine and an amazing producer told me, ‘It’s time you do this.’”
“I actually think I can distance myself from the footage and work on it now. This is a very relevant story in today’s reality because this is a fable as old as the world itself, [about] the fall of the Titans.”
“Each Titan reacts differently when faced with this dilemma – let the power go or shed blood to keep it? Shevardnadze hadn’t a second thought about it, and I think in today’s reality where we see all over the world politicians clinging to power, this is a really important reminder that answer to that question.”
Producer Yahontov added: “Sophie had in fact unique access, balancing [her work] between frontline reportage and intimate home videos. We strongly believe in the potential of this material, and most probably this film will provoke very wide interest in all post-Soviet territories. But our main ambition is to bring this story to international audiences.”
On the current status of the project, he revealed: “We’ve just finalised the director’s cut. This is the first time we’re presenting the project to the international [doc] industry. We’re now searching for sales agents, distributors and potential co-producers, taking into consideration that the production isn’t over yet.”
“I agree with Sophie – the time for this film has come,” he signed off.
