Filmmaker Salome Jashi’s documentary wins big at Croatian fest

Georgian filmmaker Salome Jashi’s award-winning documentary The Dazzling Light of Sunset has been singled out for a fresh international accolade after the film received the top prize of the ZagrebDox festival in Croatia last weekend.

The feature-length work was awarded best international film at the international documentary festival that concluded on Sunday.

The documentary was part of the festival’s International Competition section and received the prize, also known as Big Stamp.

The Dazzling Light of Sunset enjoyed seven screenings at four different venues hosting the event, with the festival organisers calling it an "extremely valuable piece”, presenting "atmospheric and subtly humorous image” of its subject.

Following the daily life of a small community in western Georgia’s town of Tsalenjikha, the documentary focuses on a local TV station covering provincial stories including weddings, church rituals and more.

All this is accompanied by a visually subtle observational detachment which shows this whole mixture of outdated tradition and new customs in both an absurd and poetically gentle light”, said the festival’s description of the film.

The award-winning piece also features music by folk ensemble Lale, artists of which were invited to perform at the annual Errichetta Festival of traditional music in Italy's capital Rome last month.

Jashi's documentary premiered at the Nyon International Film Festival last year. Photo: Film Facebook page.

The Dazzling Light of Sunset premiered at the Nyon International Film Festival in Switzerland in April 2016 and was awarded Best New Film at the event.

Awards received by the director for the documentary also include Best International Feature Film at Valdivia International Film Festival in Chile in October 2016.

The Georgian filmmaker has been recognised for her previous work as well.

Georgian filmmaker Levan Koguashvili's feature 'Gogita's New Life' was also screened in Zagreb. Photo: ZagrebDox.

Her 2011 documentary Bakhmaro received Honorary Mention at the 2011 Leipzig International Festival for Documentary and Animated Film in Germany, while she was also named as one of the judges of the 2015 edition of the German festival.

Jashi’s work screened at the Zagreb festival along with 20 other films from across the world, including Gogita’s New Life – another feature by a Georgian director.

The 2016 co-production between Georgia, Ukraine, Croatia and Russia was directed by Levan Koguashvili, whose 2014 work Blind Dates won best screenplay at CIDEDAYS 2014 festival in Macedonia.