4.5/5★
Rusudan Chkonia’s second feature film is a humorous examination of societal relations amidst Georgia’s housing crisis.
Based on Chkonia’s own personal experiences purchasing an under-construction apartment, Venezia (2024) follows the desperate co-owners of the eponymous residential building project VENEZIA as they try to finally end a seven-year deadlock in construction.
The film opens to the stolid Razhiko (Giorgi Bochorishvili) returning to the site after a stint in prison. He enters the scene just as his fellow co-owners and future neighbours have agreed that the disabled Kote (George Babluani), who uses a wheelchair, will switch apartments with the priest, Father Alexander (Giorgi Gurgulia), which will break the deadlock and allow construction to be finalised. There is just one problem — the new contract would put Kote in the basement, a flooded area not intended to be wheelchair accessible.
When Kote’s ex-wife and lawyer Nene (Ia Sukhitashvili) realises this, all hell breaks loose. If Kote refuses to move, he can keep his fifth-floor flat — except now construction plans have changed and there will be no elevator. At the same time, someone needs to switch with the priest, otherwise the original deadlock will continue, and everyone will lose out.
The rest of the film follows the co-owners as they bicker between who should be the one to take the basement flat, interspersed with outbursts from the security guard seeking news about his own legal case and co-owner Gia (Zaza Salia), who is convinced the only solution is to sacrifice a sheep.
Discover the best films, books, and music from the Caucasus — handpicked by our team and delivered biweekly straight to your inbox.
Built as a microcosm of Georgia, ‘where nothing moves forward’, as director Chkonia put it during a Q&A at WineCast 2025, the characters and their emerging conflicts with each other reflect some of the biggest issues within Georgian society. Most obviously, there is the lack of accommodations afforded to Kote, despite clear knowledge from the builders of his condition. In turn, fellow co-owner Zuriko (Jano Izoria) sees his alleged homosexuality become a black mark against his name as everyone seeks to cast themselves in the best light, and therefore undeserving of the basement flat. And then there is the corruption by the original construction company, which lies at the heart of all the conflict, causing, through a chain of events, Razhiko’s imprisonment and Kote’s accident and subsequent divorce, the effects of which are clearly still present amongst the squabbling co-owners.
Throughout it all, the construction company’s representative Alex (Giorgi Bakhutashvili) struggles to find a solution tenable for everyone so he can return home to his newborn child.
Venezia is a chamber film made up of a series of long takes, ranging from 11 to 23 minutes, giving the film the feeling of a stage play as the chaotic ensemble roam the unfinished concrete structure. In another creative decision, the film’s aspect ratio continuously narrows, matching the increasing tension in the narrative and the increasingly insular consciousness of the characters.
The soundtrack by Swiss composer Jean Loup Bernet is also worth a mention, going a long way towards creating the film’s unsettling ambience.
Coming over ten years after Chkonia’s debut film, Venezia, an astute, yet entertaining, examination of current Georgian society, is a worthy successor.
Film details: Venezia (2024), directed by Rusudan Chkonia. Available to stream with English subtitles on Cavea+.
