Zaza Urushadze

Zaza Urushadze (Georgian: ზაზა ურუშაძე; 30 October 1965 — 7 December 2019) was a Georgian film director, screenwriter, and producer.

He graduated in 1988 from the directing department of the Shota Rustaveli Theatre and Film Georgian State University. From 2002 to 2004 he was the director of the Georgian National Film Centre.

Zaza’s full-length debut film Here Comes the Dawn (1998) was very successful and participated in many international film festivals. It was Georgia’s official Best Foreign Language Film submission at the 72nd Academy Awards, but did not receive a nomination.

Zaza’s second full-length film Three Houses was finished in 2008. It participated in international film festivals (including Montreal World Film Festival). In December 2009, Zaza Urushadze’s film opened the program of Georgian Filmweek in Tallinn, Estonia. During the meeting with Artur Veeber and Tatjana Mühlbeier, the idea to write a script for Tangerines was born.

Tangerines, the first Estonian-Georgian co-production, was finished in 2013. It became one of the most successful and worldwide acclaimed films in Georgian film history. The story takes place during the war in Georgia, where, in the Apkhazeti region in 1990, an Estonian man, Ivo, has stayed behind to harvest his crops of tangerines. When a wounded man is left at his door, Ivo has no choice but to take him in.

The film won awards in several international festivals, including the Satellite Award for Best Foreign Language Film and an Audience Award for best film at the Warsaw International Film Festival. At the International Film Festival Mannheim-Heidelberg 2013, Tangerines won a special prize, the Audience Prize for Best Feature Film and the Cinema Owners Prize and at the Fajr International Film Festival, the film was acknowledged as the best film with the best scriptwriting. It was also nominated for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 87th Academy Awards and was among the five nominated films at the 72nd Golden Globe Awards for best foreign-language film.

Three years later, in 2016, Zaza Urushadze began producing his new film, The Confession (working title “The Monk”). The film was produced by Ivo Felt of Estonia-based Allfilm and Zaza Urushadze’s company Cinema24 and was funded with €700,000. The Confession tells the story of a film director-turned-priest whose life in a small mountain village begins to unravel when he meets a local music teacher who is hiding a dark secret. The director said: “I can’t say The Monk will be similar to Tangerines, it will be lighter and maybe even more sensitive, but it will be hopefully very entertaining.” Filming took place in Kakheti, Georgia in July and August with a cast including Dmitri Tatishvili, Joseph Khvedelidze, and Sophia Sebiskveradze. The film premiered in early 2017.

Zaza Urushadze died of a heart attack on 7 December 2019.

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