
Nutsa Gogoberidze. 1902 -1966
Born in Saingilo, Georgia. Graduated from philosophy faculty in Yena, Germany. At the age of 25 became the first female Georgian film director. In 1927 she made her first documentary “Their Kingdom” together with Mikhail Kalatozoff;
Second film was “Buba” (1930) with artistic input from David Kakabadze. Her third film “Ujmuri” - “Desperate Valley” overcame numerous obstacles and appeared on screens in 1934. It was the first soviet feature film directed by woman.
In 1937, while Stalinian purges, she was arrested as “a member of family of people’s enemy” and sentenced to 10 years of exile. Her films were forbidden. After returning from exile Nutsa had no opportunity to return to film industry and instead worked in the lexicography department of the linguistics Institute.
She died in 1966, at the age of 63.
Only after Nutsa`s death her creative work was rediscovered.
In 2011 appeared her book “The trains of happiness”, novels written about her being in exile.
In 2013 her film “Buba” was rediscovered and shown to public, first in Tbilisi, then in London, New York, San Francisco, Washington, Bussan, Wiesbaden…
Susan Oxtoby (The University of California, Berkeley Art Museum) wrote: “Nutsa Gogoberidze´s “Buba”, an accomplished, poetic documentary. This film was effectively written out of film history during the Soviet regime but has been restored and should be considered alongside films like Bunuel’s Las Hurdes for its complex relationship between so-called subjective content and authorial voice”.
Yutte Jensen (New York, MOMA): “Astounding documentary now celebrated for its authentic cinematic language”.
Sasha Rekhviashvili, Georgian filmmaker: “It is a film about eternity, and now its authors, as well as the film itself, became the part of eternity”.
Nutsa´s feature film “Ujmuri” is still to be rediscovered.
Nutsa´s daughter Lana Gogoberidze is one the most prominent Georgian women filmmaker of generation of sixties of Soviet Union and granddaughter Salome Alexi is film director graduated from Femis/ Paris film school. So Nutsa Gogoberidze is at head of three generation of women filmmaker from beginning of 20th century until today.