Gigi´s Dream - Interview with a dead man

It is 2003 and Viennese film student Gerlinde Schmid travels to Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia, the home of talented young animation film student Gigi. The filmmaker has chosen him as the protagonist of her degree project. Her suitcase contains a video camera and a microphone. Her budget does not stretch to expensive equipment or a dedicated camera crew. It is Gerlinde Schmid's first trip to this country on Europe’s frontier: a land fundamentally transformed by the collapse of the Soviet Union.

The people of Georgia, once the poster child of the Soviet Union, now find themselves faced with economic challenges – hardships that have not spared the arts, either, in the new free-market system. Her explorations of the vast, once-famous Georgia Film studios reveal the omnipresent collapse.

Ten years after her first visit, the filmmaker decides to visit Gigi again. Have the young country of Georgia and its film industry managed to forge a path of their own? Have the hopes Gigi had as a young student dreams been fulfilled? But she suffers a difficult setback: Gigi no longer wishes to appear on camera. Defying the obstacles and having faith in a positive future are qualities she admires in the Georgians, and it is this same attitude that helps her to complete her film in spite of Gigi's absence on camera.

Schmid’s journey of discovery results in a documentary that traces the career of a Georgian film student against the backdrop of the young, post-Soviet nation. At the same time, it reflects Georgia's cinematic heritage, which has experienced drastic change through various economic systems. As well as Gigi, the film features Rezo Chkheidze (Father of a Soldier), Merab Saralidze, Nana Janelidze and other great names of Georgian cinema.