Blueberry Dreams
Elene Mikaberidze / Georgia, France, Belgium & Qatar / 2024 / World Premiere / 75 min
A warm and understatedly humourous film about a Georgian family's project to start a blueberry farm in an area where old conflicts rumble underground. A young film from the old world, where the family's two sons dream of a different future.
Led by the good-hearted father Soso, a family of four starts a blueberry farm to secure their future together. But with a home in northern Georgia, their village is close to the troubled border with the Russian-backed region of Abkhazia, where new conflicts have been rumbling for 30 years. Soso is a retired engineer, but together with his wife Nino and their sons Giorgi and Lazare, he throws himself into the ‘Plant the Future’ programme set up by the Georgian authorities to stabilise the area. Nino is haunted by memories of the war and dreams of her children experiencing the world, while Soso wants to maintain their connection to the land. But Giorgi and Lazare long for a different future, immersing themselves in anime and dreaming of visiting Japan. In the midst of their daily lives, the family navigates between hardship, joy and contemplation of a different future.