TAMING THE GARDEN by Salomé Jashi

In this episode, we feature a conversation with Georgian filmmaker, Salomé Jashi about her film TAMING THE GARDEN which premiered at Sundance Film Festival.

TAMING THE GARDEN is an ode to the rivalry between men and nature, the story of how a powerful man indulges in an unusual hobby by having century-old trees uprooted in communities along the Georgian coast and transplanted to his private garden. As the film follows this process of uprooting and rerooting, it portrays the needs and values of today’s Georgian society and reflects on the theme of forced migration, where "uprooting" is more than a metaphor.

Kopal Joshy, a filmmaker currently living in Lisbon, moderates the conversation.

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ABOUT THE ARTIST

Salomé Jashi was born in Tbilisi, Georgia in 1981. She first studied journalism and worked as a reporter for several years. In 2005 she was awarded a British Council scholarship to study documentary filmmaking at Royal Holloway, University of London. Salomé’s The Dazzling Light of Sunset (2016) was awarded the Main Prize at Visions du Réel’s Regard Neuf Competition as well as at ZagrebDox, Jihlava IDFF, Valdivia IDFF, and several other festivals. Her earlier work, Bakhmaro (2011), made in co-production with ma.ja.de. filmproduktion and MDR/Arte, received an Honorary Mention for a Young Documentary Talent at DOK Leipzig, was awarded as the Best Central and Eastern European Documentary at Jihlava IDFF, and was nominated for the Asia Pacific Screen Awards and Silver Eye Awards. Salomé is the founder and works through two production companies: Sakdoc Film and Microcosmos, both producing documentaries and fiction of high artistic quality. She was a fellow of Nipkow Scholarship in 2017 and DAAD Artists-in-Berlin Program in 2020.