Vanishing Villages

17 min.

Filmmaker: Keti Gigashvilli

Vanishing Villages

12.04.23

As a result of mining activities a rural part of Chiatura looks like a battlefield -  a frontline, where houses are vanishing into the ground day by day. It is a cross-road, where people and economic interests intersect. 


Zhora Megrelishvili dedicated most of his adult life to building a house for his family. For years, he managed the whole process himself, building the house with his brothers. When he finally reached the point when he decided he could rest and enjoy the house with his grandchildren, the entire home was swallowed by a mine. Today, just a part of the roof is visible. Zhora and his family have been fighting for a year to prove that their home was destroyed as the result of mining by Georgian Manganese. He often visits the ruins of his home to look for his favorite instrument, a clarinet that disappeared the day the earth took his home.