I Swam Enguri
A young woman decides to find her house that she has been deprived of at the age of 4 due to the war. The only chance to get to the occupied area is to cross the border secretly. The border barrier, the natural dividing line, the river Enguri, all add up to the artificially created wire line by Russian soldiers. In search of her house, the protagonist explores the lives of internally displaced people for 24 years after the war and sinks into the art of existence that seems to be war, rather than peace.
In the process, she meets the so-called "connectors," who help her get to the occupied territory. The story portrays the everlasting and estranging damage occupation can cause and how it can eradicate the concept of "home" and the comforting feeling of safety.
Geopolitical context
In August 1992, simmering ethnic tensions erupted into a thirteen-month war in Georgia's Abkhazia region. As a result, Georgia lost control of most of Abkhazia. To flee, thousands of civilians had to cross the Kodori mountain pass into the highland province of Svaneti. The perilous escape through the frozen Kodori pass claimed many people's lives, including children, due to frostbite and exhaustion. Under threat of ethnic cleansing and physical destruction, 300,000 Abkhazian residents fled the region. The Russian Federation's special services and military played a significant role in igniting this armed conflict. On the one hand, the Russian Federation conducted humanitarian operations while publicly condemning the actions of the Abkhazian military. Russian planes, on the other hand, took part in the bombing of Sukhumi as well as in other military operations against Georgian troops and civilians.
Some parts of Abkhazia are still densely populated by Georgian communities. Connection to the other side of the Enguri River, a ‘natural border’ controlled by Georgia, remains critical for the majority of the residents of the occupied area. Despite the threat of violence from Russian and Abkhaz patrols, they regularly cross the occupation line.
Anuna has worked on multimedia, social, and creative projects addressing subjects such as occupation, borders, war, and home, women’s, and sexual rights, femicide, and youth activism, among others. She has spent many years advocating for the rights of internally displaced people and researching various aspects of conflicts, particularly focusing on the Abkhaz-Georgian conflict and the continuous danger of Russian military presence.
Anuna’s debut documentary film, I Swam Enguri (2017) created a visible impact by drawing broader public and regional attention to the conflict and its human cost. She continued to give talks and seminars on the subject to people of all ages across the Caucasus and Eastern Partnership countries after the film's release, as well as publish essays and launch new social art and film projects.
Anuna is presently completing Lana, an experimental film essay and intermedia project. Also, she’s working on an art book about femicide and collecting vernacular images of internally displaced people for a future digital archive.
Selected Filmography: Lana (in production), I Swam Enguri (Me Gadavcure Enguri, 2017)
