The debut feature film of Levan Koguashvili is a dramatic look at Georgia’s “Lost Generation”: the men and women who were born and grew up in the Soviet Union just before its collapse. After the dissolution of the USSR, they were forced to rapidly adapt to the new Capitalist reality.
Moving from a system that, although deeply corrupted, provided some basic services fro the average citizen, to one as corrupted but now completely careless, many of these Georgians got lost in drug addiction and alcohol abuse.
The story of Checkie and his buddies, young men who spend their daily existence hanging out without aim on the streets of Tbilisi with no hope for a better future, is just one of the many real dramas ridding Georgia of his best youth.
Director’s note
For me this film is about a strange and a very sad generation. These people were born and grew up in the Soviet Union, but after this country collapsed in front of their eyes, they were forced to adapt to a different reality. For many of them this new reality was very difficult. Wars, poverty, power-cuts, and also a new and strange capitalist environment. For those who survived the wars and poverty, capitalism became an insurmountable obstacle. Having grown up in the corrupt but care-free Soviet system, they couldn’t find their place in a new but no less corrupt Georgian reality driven by the search for capitalism. Somehow, they had to use their southern, Georgian temperament – so, unfortunately, many of them chose alcoholism and drug addiction. There were many talented and good people among them. They just had to live during a difficult period, which we called “street days”. Many of them are no longer alive, and those who survived are called “the lost generation”. This film is very personal, because it tells the story of a generation which I remember, which I love, and which I pity – the generation I feel I belong to.