Georgian producing duo Nino Chichua and Anna Khazaradze, whose 1991 Prods. is among the co-producers of Levan Akin’s Berlinale Panorama opener “Crossing,” have set their next feature, a political drama from rising director Uta Beria, as the company launches a new London arm with an eye toward fostering more collaborations between the U.K. and mainland Europe.
Produced by 1991, France’s Tripode Prods. and Germany’s 70 Steps, “Tear Gas” is a family drama set against the recent political unrest in the Georgian capital, Tbilisi. Indie Sales will be repping international sales on Beria’s sophomore effort, with Tandem handling distribution in France.
While rooted in current events in Georgia, Chichua says the universal, coming-of-age story will strike a chord with a younger generation wrestling with the turmoil of the present moment and the uncertainty of the future.
“It tells the story of…the generation that is grappling with the disparity between the hopes and the complexities of the world we have inherited,” she says. “It talks about universal themes of family and love and inner protest that our generation has.”
Launched in 2017, Chichua and Khazaradze’s company — which takes its name from the year that both Georgia achieved independence and the longtime friends were born — was built to foster international collaborations with the growing industry in their native country, which sits at the crossroads between Europe and Asia.
Educated abroad, where they also gained experience as line producers, the duo returned to Georgia to find a rich vein of untapped emerging talents who they wanted to help launch on the global stage. They also saw an opportunity to service the growing number of foreign productions looking to shoot in the Caucasus region.
Their latest endeavor, “Crossing,” highlights the kind of project that Chichua and Khazaradze are eager to board. An ambitious, five-country co-production, it tells the story of a retired teacher who sets out from her hometown in Georgia to fulfill her sister’s dying wish to find her long-lost daughter. The journey eventually takes her to Istanbul, in what Chichua describes as “a very international story that anybody can connect to.”
“This is what we usually look for with the films that we choose to work on,” she says. “Even though they might be set locally, they always transcend borders.”
1991 Prods. has now launched a new London outpost, a move inspired in part by a desire to capitalize on the U.K. industry’s efforts to foster collaboration with mainland Europe post-Brexit. Through its Georgian production arm, the company can offer British producers an experienced co-production partner with a foothold on the continent and access to E.U. financing schemes.
“We have partners we have worked with. We know how to structure a co-production. We know what funding we can bring from which country,” says Chichua. “Our vision would be to facilitate more fluid ways of collaboration in the film industry across borders.”
The expansion to London also feels like a natural move for the two producers, who were educated at U.K. film schools and have experience in the local industry. “It was somehow logical and an organic connection to the place,” Khazaradze says.
The duo is now looking to broaden its slate by taking on U.K. and English-language projects — both as majority and minority co-producers — while also giving an international platform to more emerging Georgian and Eastern European filmmakers.
“It’s a good chance for us to take part in really interesting projects and become partners with them,” Khazaradze says. “This will also allow us to give voices to these talents through co-productions with the U.K., and also tap into broader distribution possibilities.”
