• 27.10.

  Kino im Zeiss-Großplanetarium
  Prenzlauer Allee 80, 10405 Berlin

  Following the screening of “Hotel Metalurg” by Jeanne Nouchi and George Varsimashvili

The discussion will bring together exciting guests from the fields of academia, the arts, and activism for a public conversation. The focus will be on the political and cultural legacy of the Soviet Union, which Georgian society must continue to actively grapple with. On October 26th of this year, with crucial government elections, the authoritarian and anti-Western policies of the ruling party Georgian Dream can be decisively rejected.

Even after thirty years of independence, Georgian democracy is currently in acute danger. The historical and cultural examination of past Russian-imperial wars in Georgia is being massively obstructed by those in power. Instead, a politics of populism, right-wing conservatism, and authoritarianism is gaining the upper hand. Can critical, anti-imperial, and decolonial research and (film) art still emerge in Georgia without censorship and withstand the pressure from the Ministry of Culture? What mechanisms, strategies, and forms of resistance can be activated in this fight for democracy? These and other questions will be discussed with the invited guests.

PanelistIs: 

Nino Lejava, Director Belgrad – Serbia, Montenegro, Kosovo Office of the Heinrich Böll Foundation

Katie Sartania, Research Fellow at Leibniz-Zentrum Moderner Orient (ZMO)

Giorgi Kakabadze, Georgisches Zentrum im Ausland (GZA)

Moderation:

Irine Beridze, Postdoc Researcher at Leibniz-Institut für Geschichte und Kultur des östlichen Europa (GWZO) e.V. 

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