The Kartli Kingdom

IDFA-awarded observational documentary about a crumbling sanatorium that has, by chance, become home to three decades of displaced lives on the outskirts of Tbilisi.

Kartli was once the name of a Georgian kingdom; now it is a dilapidated sanatorium where families displaced by the Abkhazian War settled for lack of alternatives — and never left. Over three decades, a small microcosm has taken shape, filled with people, animals, everyday rituals, love, death, friendship and — most of all — a persistent waiting for something better. In this restrained debut, scenes from life inside the sanatorium are woven together with intimate VHS fragments, forming a finely tuned portrait of vivid individuals who refuse to let uncertainty prevail.