🎬 North Caucasian Cinema: TIME IS (Zaur Kourazov, 2020) + TEMO RE (Anka Gujabidze, 2025)

Zaur Kourazov (1994) is a Chechen filmmaker who graduated from KASK Ghent with his short film Time Is. For this evening, Cavia asked him to be a guest curator and to pick another film to screen alongside his.
 

TIME IS
Zaur Kourazov | 2020 | Belgium | 21’ | EN subtitles

In a quiet and snowy Chechen village, mother tells her daughter about the return of Zara – their relative, who left this place 20 years ago. Outside, the whole world is hidden in a thick white fog. For both women, the upcoming meeting is a bright event in their dull daily life that they are very much looking forward to. Time Is dwells on themes of memory, identity and bonds from intercultural aspects and explores the 'in betweenness'.

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TEMO RE
Anka Gujabidze | 2025 | Georgia | 50’ | EN subtitles

Directed and shot by Anka Gujabidze on a shoestring budget, the film freely adapts Temo Rekviashvili’s novel Courier’s Tales, which was itself a hybrid memoir of his life as a scooter courier when unable to get much acting work. With Rekviashvili playing himself, Gujabidze condenses his book into a single day of ranging around his city and the various escapades that he becomes involved in along the way. Shot on a still camera and pit together in the edit, Temo Re is a photomontage that obviously bears a resemblance to Chris Marker’s La Jetée but feels completely different, a charming and slightly surreal shaggy dog story.


From September to December 2025, Filmhuis Cavia will screen a selection of films from the North Caucasian region, specifically Chechnya and Georgia. You can find the full program HERE.