Vienna-based sales outlet Square Eyes has secured international rights to “The Kartli Kingdom,” directed by Tamar Kalandadze and Julien Pebrel. The film is set to world premiere in the International Competition at the International Documentary Festival Amsterdam ( IDFA ), taking place Nov. 13-23.

“Kartli” refers both to Georgia’s medieval kingdom and a Tbilisi sanatorium sheltering refugees from the 1990s war in Abkhazia, meant as temporary but lasting 30 years. The collapsing building became a recreated “country”: a farm, garden, terraces, and rooms where old VHS tapes revive memories of Abkhazia, their lost paradise. Through Tamuna, Irma and others, the film reveals the exile’s trauma and shared resilience. Even if time seems frozen in Kartli’s walls, nothing stays the same.

“Our f

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