The filmmakers behind “A Long Break,” Georgia’s official submission for the Best International Picture Oscar, shared their intense personal connections to the film and the challenges they faced while making it.
Writer-director Davit Pirtskhalava’s first feature film tells the story of a group of classmates who reunite at their old high school 13 years after graduation. Under the guise of having a good time, Tsitsi (Shako Mirianashvili) brings the men together for a night of painful memories and confrontations.
Pirtskhalava, producer Tiko Nadirashvili and actor Giorgi Sharvashidze revealed what drew them to the project during a virtual screening of the film as part of TheWrap’s 2022-2023 Awards Season Screening Series.
Like some of his characters, the writer-director said he was a bully and was bullied as a student. “Both parties are victims,” he told moderator Steve Pond. “Then the solution is not to escape [the past]rather face it, embrace it and move forward in this way and it gives you a lot of freedom.”
Sharvashidze plays Guga, the only member of the group whose personality seems to have changed since his school days. He said that “it was not easy to accept the role, because the story was my life.”
“What gave me strength [was that] that I realized that it would be like a confession, and repentance [for] what I did in school, and I think this film gives you a chance to see your old steps and decisions,” he said. “There is always room to repent and ask for forgiveness from your colleagues or your friends. Maybe we can see these people who [were] our victims and ask for their forgiveness, but very carefully of course, and meet them somewhere, treat them with care and love.”
It wasn’t just the themes that impacted the filmmakers. Nadirashvili said they fired at four different schools over the course of 25 days, mostly at night. One of the places turned out to be the old school of Pirtskhalava; another was that of Sharvashidze. Many of the team members were also alumni, which strengthened their connection to the story.
Appearing on set only to find himself back in the same classrooms he sat in for 11 years struck Sharvashidze as a “coincidence” and “a great sign.”
“I realized that it was something very special,” he recalled. “And then I realized that I had to be in this movie and we’re here in this world for a reason.”
Similarly, Pirtskhalava described photographing at her old school as visiting “this corner of my imagination, these past situations, this classroom. A lot of it was very emotional and it was very hard, but also with some kind of joy.”
See the full interview here.
