DOMINO EFFECT

Once upon a time the Black Sea city of Sukhumi was considered a Soviet vacation paradise. Today it’s the capital of the internationally unrecognized state of Abkhazia, which seceded from Georgia in a bloody conflict. In the Caucasian miniature state sustained through Moscow’s mercy, proud Rafael is the Minister of Sport, stricken by desolate infrastructure and a slew of other problems. He loves the Russian singer Natasha, who moved to his mother country for him and now feels foreign, unaccepted and lonely. The directorial duo Niewiera/Rosołowski observes how the private and the political, the indeterminable and the stuff of identity, mix, interfere with one another and finally collide – in the shadow of a war which has yet to release people from its spell. The screening is supported by funding from the Robert Bosch Stiftung’s Grenzgänger development programme.