Vakhtang Komakhidze’s New Documentary Movie about August War “Here It Is: The War Which We Won”
January 12, 2011
In the near future, the new documentary film by journalist Vakhtang Komakhidze will be screened in Georgia; the film is about the armed conflict of August 2008.
After the conflict, Vakhtang Komakhidze visited Tskhinvali to search for materials for the movie. As a result, Komakhidze was threatened by the government of Georgia.
In February of 2010, Komakhidze went to Switzerland where he received political shelter several months later. Prior to that, the journalist published an appeal where he said “request of political asylum was the only guarantee to finish the movie in the form how it should be presented to the society.”
Vakhtang Komakhidze finished working on the film several days ago. Netgazeti.ge interviewed him.
- Why did you finish working on the film so late?
-The delay was caused by the same reasons as my presence in Switzerland. It was impossible to work on the film in Switzerland with empty hands. All this time I was doing my best to create minimal conditions for working.
- Did you visit Tskhinvali because of the film?
-I visited Tskhinvali as a guest and to get some materials too. But on my way back to Tbilisi I already knew the content of the film.
- Is there any possibility that your film will be declared an order of the enemy?
-I was declared to be a KGB spy as soon as I left Tskhinvali. Generally, similar declarations do not aim to discredit anybody; the government tries to prevent other people from expressing “unpleasant” opinions in order not to get similar “status”.
It always happened like that. They could not call such people the dove of peace. Generally, it is problem of the society when similar declarations have effect.
- How ethic is the movie?
-The scenes in the film are really emotionally difficult to view; they are as hard to watch as Saakashvili’s speech after the war in front of the parliament, or scenes of him fleeing to Gori which was shown by media. I think it was the correct decision to show similar scenes. I think society should know the truth about the “won war”.
- Did you manage to expose such a complicated problem with five respondents only?
-Why only five? How many people did I have to record? – 7, 1007 or three million and half? Only those five people do not have similar opinion (for example, I am the sixth). Those five people were enough to tell the truth about the story which is described in the documentary.
News
December 13, 2023
Ethnic minorities outside the peace dialogue
November 6, 2023
‘Peace’ agenda of political parties
Popular
Articles
February 13, 2024
Why are Ossetians affected by the conflict unable to regain Georgian citizenship and their property?
