IN BLOOM (GRZELI NATELI DGEEBI) New Auteurs

First-time filmmakers Nana Ekvtimishvili and Simon Gross present a powerful story of two girls challenging outdated patriarchal expectations while living in a country dominated by testosterone-fueled aggression. It’s 1992 in Tbilisi, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, but 14-year-old best friends Eka and Natia are unfazed by the fear and insecurity lurking around them. As civil war rages in the rest of the country, the girls are preoccupied with school gossip, learning how to smoke cigarettes and flirting with the neighborhood boys. Their lives change when Natia receives a pistol as an unexpected love gesture and suddenly the girls must face circumstances beyond their control. Loosely based on Nana Ekvtimishvili’s childhood memories and featuring radiant performances by the two breakout leads, Lika Babluani and Mariam Bokeria, IN BLOOM portrays distinctively fierce female characters rebelling against their traditions in order to blossom within their crumbling city.