Dabruneba (return)

"Dabruneba" is a feature documentary that we have been working on for the past two years. It depicts the story of our friend Sofiko. She had to flee her hometown, Tbilisi, at the age of seven and, together with her family, she arrived to Barcelona by foot. Sofiko's journey was so impressive to us that we needed to share it with the world.

In the documentary, Sofiko (24) re-does the migratory trip that took her to Catalonia seventeen years ago. Following the exact same itinerary that she remembers as a child –but departing from Barcelona–, **she will visit the places and the people that took part in this journey across Europe.

The conversations, the landscapes and her journey, both physical and emotional, speak of the invisible consequences of a war that forced her parents to leave the country where she still finds home.

50 days, 2.167 kilometers

In 2003, Georgia was still a country of political tension and inestable context. Poverty, the lack of job opportunities and general uncertainty were arguments that pushed many georgian families to flee to Europe. Sofiko’s family was one of them. But, as it was and is still common, they weren’t allowed regular access to the E.U. Therefore, their only way of getting to Spain was crossing the borders by foot.

On the 12th of July 2003, Gela, Tamara and Sofiko met with Nino and her son, Oto, and together with Gia, Nukri and Arthur they took a plane to Ukraine where their journey began. A journey that would end 50 days and 2.167 kilometers later in Strasburg, after crossing Slovakia, Austria and Germany. At Strasburg station, Guram -Nino's husband- picked them up and brought them to Barcelona.

The team

We are a group of four friends and co-authors of the project. We have been working together for 2 years and sharing classrooms for 5. We are carrying out this project from the conviction that eight eyes are worth much more than two, and for this reason –among others– we want to create this first movie horizontaly. However, we do have some roles to work more efficently:

Mar Garro Lleonart (Direction): has directed the short documentary Mogoneba, recuerdo de un viaje (2020) screened at the international Filmets Film Festival. She has also directed El Banco (2018) and has collaborated in the short movie Els esvaïts (2019). She currently works at the communication and press department of Alba Sotorra Cinema Productions company, and works in educational audiovisual in the participatory photography project Infraexposats, coordinated by RUIDO Photo.

Julieta Balasch Carulla (Editing and Sound): is currently taking a postgraduate course in video editing at BSM-UPF. She has worked at Arpa Films S.L. for a year as a production assistant on the feature documentaries Love Parade (2020) and Erasmus in Gaza (2021). She has also collaborated in the production of the documentaries Me llamo Violeta (2019) and Idrissa (2018). She has worked on other projects as an editor. Among them, Dies robats (2018), El Banco (2018) and Mogoneba, recuerdo de un viaje (2020). In fiction, she has edited the short film Els esvaïts, selected in several film festivals.

Paloma Bercovich Melamed (Direction of photography and Camera): She has worked as a trainee AD in the greek-spanish co-production Mediterráneo (2021). She has directed the documentary short film Family Portraits (2019) and collaborated in short films such as The conductor (2019), selected at the Jihlava Film Festival, or Els Esvaïts (2019). In the photography field, she has carried out the documentary project Quatre elements (2017) and has been part of group exhibitions at ArtPhotoBcn and FineArt Igualada.

Júlia Farràs Riu (Production and Sound): works in the communication department of Innomads Innovation Hub. Producer and sound director of the documentary short film Mogoneba, recuerdo de un viaje (2019), production director of the fiction short film Els Esvaïts (2019) as well as the short film Mermaid Rose (2018) at the University of New South Wales (Australia).

Sofiko Zaalishvili, friend and main character of the documentary, is the last but not least member of the group. She guides us through both her journey and the history of her country, actively participating in the creation of the documentary.

Who is helping us

Jordi Balló: dean of the Faculty of Communication and director of the Master's in Creative Documentary at Pompeu Fabra University.

Carla Simón: director of Summer 1993 (2018), which gave her the Goya for best new director in 2018.

Célia Rico: director of Viaje al cuarto de una madre (2018), winner of best fiction movie at the Gaudi's awards in 2019.

Sergi Moreno: producer at Lastor Media with films such as 10.000 km (2014), Tierra firme (2017), Júlia ist (2017) Els dies que vindran (2019) and La Mort de Guillem (2020).

Carlos Marqués-Marcet: director of films such as 10.000 km (2014) (Goya for best new director in 2015), Els dies que vindran (2019), and La Mort de Guillem (2020).

Carolina Sourdis: PhD in Communication at Pompeu Fabra University. Her research focuses on European cinema essays and the interconnection between film practice and theory.

How will we use your contribution

Most of our film's budget consists in covering the travel expenses. Making the documentary involves crossing Europe, including the cost of transport, lodging, food, permits, insurance and many other expenses that it also entails. Although we are investing our own resources, we need to get external help in order to finance the total cost of the project.

Planned calendar

This year with the covid-19 crisis has been a constant making and unmaking calendars, as it has happened to many other projects all around the world. So far, our intention is to set off and complete our trip between July and August 2021. Upon arrival, we will begin with post-production in order to have the film ready by spring and be able to release Dabruneba in September 2022!!

To learn more about the project, you can follow us on instagram @ dabruneba.doc

Share Dabruneba with your people, it will help us a lot!