VARIOUS: A journey into the life of a Georgian woman seeking meaning in a man's world, made by an Israeli film director, is set to compete in Cannes' student competition

Record ID: 397402

  • Title: VARIOUS: A journey into the life of a Georgian woman seeking meaning in a man's world, made by an Israeli film director, is set to compete in Cannes' student competition
  • Date: 10th May 2012
  • Summary: TEL AVIV, ISRAEL (MAY 9, 2012) (REUTERS) WIDE OF TSICKO (SOUNDBITE) (English) ETI TSICKO, STUDENT AT DEPARTMENT OF CINEMA AND TELEVISION AT TEL AVIV UNIVERSITY, WHOSE SHORT FILM "DOG LEASH" IS COMPETING IN THE CANNES FILM FESTIVAL CINEFONDATION SELECTION, SAYING: "It talks about women and their situation in a world of men, what it means to be a woman in life in general.
  • Embargoed: 25th May 2012 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Israel
  • Country: Israel
  • Reuters ID: LVA9CLE0XE4B4MOZHZ8XQNJIBGUS
  • Story Text: Israeli student Eti Tsicko hopes her 26-minute film "Dog Leash" will leave the audience with plenty to contemplate after its screening at the 65th Cannes International Film Festival, kicking off May 16.
    Film director Tsicko's drama, centered on a 36-year old Georgian woman, will compete against 14 other short films, including a movie from first-time entry Lebanon, selected in the Cinéfondation student film competition on the French Riviera.
    The film focuses on 'Marina', a woman whoup on a very dangerous path when cracks appear in what Tsicko calls her "frozen" life.
    30-year-old Tsicko, has competed in several international film festivals, including the Istanbul International Film Festival and the Thessaloniki International Film Festival, with two previous films "Stained" and "Audition".
    Her latest low budget film touches on issues such as feminism, culture, violence and sex: "It talks about women and their situation in a world of men, what it means to be a woman in life in general. Maybe it's political in that kind of way. It has a little bit of touches, of, not religion, she's Georgian so it's kind of a cultural thing which colours her character," Tsicko said during an interview at the Department of Cinema and Television at Tel Aviv University, which partially funded the filmmaking.
    Inspired by Italian film director Michelangelo Antonioni, known for "Blow-Up" and "L'avventura", Tsicko said the film deals with dialogues in a non-conventional style.
    "I kind of really wanted to take the film to high edges, means, not traditional cinema. So the script is not written as a very standard scripts, it's kind of like a flow, it's very, very emotional and an internal thing in the movie where kind of like the character has to play something very hard to play like without any words, she hardly speaks in the movie and it's all kind of like showing what goes on inside," Tsicko explained.
    "Dog Leash" was selected from over 1,700 submissions from 320 film schools and will compete alongside short films from the U.S., Argentina, the U.K., Cuba, Italy, Russia, Romania, Belgium, the Czech Republic, France, Japan and now Lebanon.
    "Behind My Olive Trees" director Pascale Abou Jamra of the Lebanese Academy of Fine Arts (ALBA) will join Tsicko at Cannes next week.
    Tsicko said she was excited to meet a woman filmmaker like herself particularly from Lebanon, a country that is formally at war with Israel.
    "Yeah, I'm looking forward to meeting the people that are competing with me from all countries, especially from Lebanon that would be great to meet someone from Lebanon which I couldn't do usually. I'm actually really looking forward to seeing her film also and it's really challenging for me that she's a woman also you know that's quite interesting to see a woman making films there that's, yes, I think it will be a nice gathering and I wish her good luck".
    Tsicko said she hoped to sweep a cash prize that could help her finance her first ever hour-and-a-half long feature film.
    "I'm really honoured to be there and hopefully let's win and if not, then you know its fine. It's really an honour to get accepted at Cannes," said Tsicko with a camera shy smile.
    This year's Cannes Film Festival will kick off on May 16 and close on May 27.
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