“A heartbreakingly pervasive tale of our current times, “On the Way Home” tells the story of refugees who can neither return home nor fully assimilate into the place where they have fled.”
In 2021 I came on as the Cinematographer for On the Way Home, a passion project dreamed up by my good friend and Georgian Director Giorgi Kvelidze. Since completion, the film has quickly grown traction at festivals all over the US. Noteably premiering and nominated for best doc at Slamdance ‘24, Best Doc nominee at Big Sky Doc Fest ‘24, and winning the Charles E. Guggenheim Emerging Artist Award at Full Frame Doc Fest.
The Abkhaz-Georgian conflict reached a peak in 1993 when 250,000 ethnic Georgians became refugees in their own country. Families fled from the only homes they had ever known in Abkhazia, and many sought refuge in the decaying Soviet sanatoriums nestled in the western Georgian town of Tskaltubo.
Now, 30 years later, generations of Georgian refugees still live, seemingly forgotten, amid these haunting ruins, once considered centers of health and luxury, now a woeful reminder of a long-gone past. Yet despite it all, their lives are colorful, resilient, hopeful, blooming from the cracks that time has wrought.
You can find the Official Website here.
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WATCH THE TRAILER:
