MIDPOINT Series Launch
Cathedral
A techno-club is a place where people find their freedom, but it’s also a microcosm of society, where the truth belongs to the majority.
Salome, an amateur DJ, has a dream to access the techno club “Cathedral”, which is considered to be an oasis of freedom from society that dominated by the hate and division. On her way to the club, she meets a resident DJ Helen, who becomes her best friend. “Cathedral” is organized like a religious institution. The pastor is Katie, who established the place and made a set of rules that everyone in the community should respect. Sandro is the main DJ and has the authority of a priest. The Illusion Room is the holy place where the Ten Commandments are displayed, while the dark room is confessional. The project seems utopian, but as soon as cracks appear, it starts to fall apart. Helen has a non-consensual sexual act with Sandro and when she realizes that the act could qualify as rape. She sees the community take side of the aggressor in order to save their reputation. Only Salome, who believes in her, insists on pursuing the truth. As many flaws as the community might have, the outside world is much worse. Therefore Helen decides “forget what happened”, in order to stay in the club, rather than be kicked out. Salome is left as the only character, who would question the hypocrisy of the “Cathedral”.
Keywords: based on a true story, LGBTQ, sexual abuse
George Varsimashvili is a Georgian writer and director born in Tbilisi in 1986. After graduating university in Georgia, he went to study film making at Paris 8 university (bachelor’s and master’s degree) and ESRA Paris film school. During his studies he made a dozen of short films, which traveled on different film festivals. He shot his graduation feature film “Particulier a Particulier” in 2012. Although film was only a graduation movie, it was still released in film theatres in France and Georgia. His short film “Iko Erti Katsi” had a festival run of 9 years from 2013 to 2022. In 2019 he was invited by Bela Tarr to direct a short film in Switzerland, which was premiered at Locarno film festival. In 2022 he released his first documentary “A Stage”, which won the best picture award at Pillusion film festival (Austria) and best editing award at Tbilisi FF (Georgia). He then continued with the documentary “Hotel Metalurg”, which was premiered at Sheffield Doc Fest and Thessaloniki FF. The film was also theatrically released in London.
Rusudan Chkonia born in 1978 .04 .25 is Writer / Director from Georgia. She graduated from Tbilisi Film and Theater University, faculty of film directing 2001. Between 2005 and 2006, Chkonia took part in Berlinale's Talent Campus. In 2007, she was the first Georgian director selected at Cannes Cinéfondation residency. In 2012 she produced and directed her debut film “Keep Smiling”. The film made with companies from France and Luxembourg became the first ever co-production between Georgia and foreign countries. The film was premiered at Venice film festival and was the Georgian entry for the Oscars. It took part at more than 140 Film Festivals all over the world and got more then 25 prizes, among them : Golden Antigone Cinemed Mediterranean Film Festival of Montpellier, FICC Jury Award Don Quijote – Tallinn Black Nights FF, Uruguay IFF Prize, CICAE Award VIlnius IFF. The film was runing in the theatres of France, Russia, Georgia, Hungary and was also sold to television stations worldwide.