CULTURE

AUGUST 13 - 19, 2021 SOCIETY

11 What I Owe Russia

BLOG BY TONY HANMER

If I had not discovered the USSR via the writings of Solzhenitsyn, visited the USSR in the summer of 1991 and seen the coup against Gorbachev (see next week), moved to St Petersburg a year later and started ethnographic studies there as a hobby, I likely would not have discovered Svaneti. The internet didn’t exist widely then, and research was much harder to do, mainly on paper from scant English and much wider Russian sources.

Yes, I was a Slavophile for a while, eagerly absorbing Russian culture, literature, art and so on. I stayed in Petersburg for 7 years and was able to travel widely as well. The train was my main conveyor: Murmansk 3 times, Moscow many times, though I’m glad I didn’t live there, around the Urals, as far east as Novosibirsk. I never got to see Lake Baikal, which is still a bucket list item, or visit a relic prison camp, or reach the Far East, all things I still hope to do. But those years hold thousands of precious memories for me.

The acculturation I picked up from former Soviet countries helped me adjust to early 2000s Georgia, although of course there is much here that is unique. Russian language fl uency was both a help, starting out here, and a hindrance to learning better Georgian. I have made the switch, but my Georgian is still not as strong as it should or could be. As for Svan: not happening; each additional language before me is harder yet!

Now, seeing the other side of the Caucasus coin, the side of the southern republics, I have different views from those I had from the side of the Northern Neighbor. I’m still seeking balance, still trying not to be prejudiced or judgmental. Georgia has captured my heart in a

way that is deeper, though, than Russia did, although my many 1990s photographs, friendships and experiences remain strong. I can’t hide those years and don’t feel I need to. They remain an important part of who I am and how I got here.

I suppose that viewing things through a Russian lens, though as a foreigner to the whole region, does color them in other ways than those for someone who came here straight from the West or elsewhere. But I can’t change that: it just is what it is; I just want to be self-aware and consider why I think or believe as I do, what my worldview is and how it formed.

It does seem that my “fate” (partly chosen, partly seemingly imposed) is tied to this little country and its far northern and western province, high in the Caucasus. I have made it known that my grave should be in a certain part of Etseri, next to the parents of my blood brother, whether I die here or not (as long as this happens in Georgia!).

Here, too, my wife and I remain foreigners, although with a reputation for engaging in the activities and yearly events of the village and region. This otherness may never change, even if we learn Svan fl uently. But we seem to have found a comfortable compromise, with some challenges remaining that we muddle through as best we can. I will never be a heavy drinker, have no desire to get drunk at all, though I do make my own liqueurs.

If not for Russia… Georgia, and Svaneti, might never have clicked into place for me at all; there’s no saying, only speculating. But that’s how I see it. Spasibo (“thank you” in Russian, from roots meaning “may God save you”)!

CULTURE

Tony Hanmer has lived in Georgia since 1999, in Svaneti since 2007, and been a weekly writer and photographer for GT since early 2011. He runs the “Svaneti Renaissance” Facebook group, now with nearly 2000 members, at www.facebook.com/ groups/SvanetiRenaissance/ He and his wife also run their own guest house in Etseri: www.facebook.com/hanmer.house.svaneti

International Documentary Film Festival CinéDOC-Tbilisi to Open on August 15

BY KETEVAN SKHIRTLADZE

This year’s edition of the CinéDOC-Tbilisi International Documentary Film Festival is to be held in a hybrid format from August 15 to September 15.

CinéDOC-Tbilisi will kick off at 23:30 on the Public Broadcaster with the fi lm “Sunny” by Georgian fi lm director Katie Machavariani.

The fi lm festival will offer the audience both a special fi lm collection and the latest documentaries from the competition section of Focus Caucasus.

Every day, from Monday to Friday, the Public Broadcaster will show the 11 best fi lms of CinéDOC-Tbilisi in the festival TV hall, and on weekends, viewers will have the opportunity to visit the festival website and in virtual movie theaters, watch the 10 latest documentaries from the competition section of Focus Caucasus, which includes fi lms from the Caucasus region – Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia.

In parallel, there will be special screenings, including fi lms from the CinéDOCYoung section, which are aimed at a relatively young, teenage audience.

The Georgian National Film Center is a partner of the festival.

PUBLISHER & GM George Sharashidze

COMMERCIAL DEPARTMENT Commercial Director: Iva Merabishvili Marketing Manager: Natalia Chikvaidze Journalists: Ana Dumbadze, Vazha Tavberidze, Tony Hanmer, Emil Avdaliani, Nugzar B. Ruhadze, Michael Godwin, Ketevan Skhirtladze Website Manager/Editor: Katie Ruth Davies

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