This time it is a film

 

There is still the smell of war in Gori. Here everything is as it was a year ago after the Russian-Georgian war – destroyed roads, polluted environment and beleaguered population. It is true this “war situation” has been created artificially for the film which Renny Harlin, the Hollywood director, is shooting about the August war, but for the people living in Gori who survived the war it was hard to bear. They had witnessed the same things in real life a year ago. Almost everyone lost someone close to them during the war.

Some days ago inhabitants of Gori had to go to work by the side roads, because the centre of Gori was full of the sound of tank engines, flying planes, guns, explosions and people doomed to die. Mothers were crying for their children, a house was burning, car tyres were on fire and the city was covered with black smoke. The inhabitants of Gori who saw and survived a lot were irritated. This time actors were playing war games, but the inhabitants had been the real heroes of what was being depicted a year ago, when their lives were in the balance.

“No one warned people that they would be shooting “war games “here. One day I was coming out of my house and what did I see - tanks moving around, military aircraft flying, the roads closed, cars on fire, one boy lying dead on this side and another on the other side. Until I found out what was going on my heart burst, these are the same scenes we saw during the August war. I could not distinguish true from false. They could have warned us, do they not know we have suffered?!” said Mana Chitadze, a resident of Gori.

The shooting of the film has caused psychological trauma to the residents, material loss to the Municipality of Gori and the ecological catastrophe in the district has worsened. The shooting has also sacrificed newly laid road. Locals say that the roads were not really so damaged even during the actual war. There are still signs of tanks on the central streets of Gori. The producers of the movie have not even spared the environment, burning cars and tyres and thus causing the same pollution we saw during the August war.

“The city was wrapped in a black cloud, we could not open our windows. When we came out into the streets our eyes were burning and we had smell of smoke all over us. If we burn one tyre the rest of the time they fine us, but these people were burning tyres for a week and no one told them anything. They are from Hollywood, so are they forgiven everything?!” asks a woman from Gori.

Burning tyres near places of residence is indeed forbidden by law. But as it seems that despite the fact that the film crew has not obtained permission to burn them no one will fine them. Nino Kituashvili from the public relations office of the Ministry of the Environment and Natural Resources says that no one asked them for permission to burn tyres in the streets and they could not give any such permission. “We cannot give permission to burn tyres or cars or cause explosions. These actions must be punished by fines according to the law. If we see someone burning a tyre we will punish them by all means. Our Ministry has not issued any permission to burn tyres for a film shoot.” But why the film crew had not therefore been fined Nino Kituashvili could not say.

It seems no one has even thought about the law and no one has troubled themselves to take care of the inhabitants but on some films they would have built sets, so they would not have had to “play” these distressing scenes in front of the inhabitants of Gori. Gia Shengelaia, a film producer, says that building sets is the approved method all over the world and every producer from Hollywood knows this very well. “It would be interesting to know why the shoot was not held on a set. Everyone knows that in Hollywood a separate city is established where sets are erected and shooting takes place there. They do not disturb the inhabitants of a place. Here it seems that they were not prepared to bother themselves with building sets. The Georgian co-producers should have taken care of the people. These scripts are only part of a movie for Hollywood but for the Georgian nation they were a bitter reality.”

Papuna Davitaia, an MP and co-Producer of the film, says that while shooting such a large scale movie it is not worth directing attention to such small things. “If someone was disturbed by the smoke from the burning tyres we apologise, but when a celebrity from Hollywood comes to Georgia and we shoot such a high level movie, we cannot hinder this for such small things, can we?” he asks.

Smelling the smoke from burning tyres for a whole week may be a small thing for Davitaia but it can be harmful for the inhabitants’ health. Davitaia also confirms that during the shooting the roads were damaged by tanks and fire. But who will compensate this loss remains obscure. “The shooting is over for now. Currently an assessment of damages is underway. The roads are damaged where tanks crossed them and where the tyres were burned. I do not know the exact amount of damage inflicted, this will be revealed soon. We do not even know whether we must pay for this damage from the budget of the movie or whether the Municipality will compensate,” said Papuna Davitaia.

Zakaria Kutsnashvili, a lawyer, says that according to the law the damage caused to the city must be compensated for from the budget of the movie and the State must not contribute to this. “As far as I know 35 million GEL has been allocated for shooting this movie. If it is already stated in this budget that the State must give some amount of money to compensate any damage there is nothing illegal in this. But does Georgia have the financial capacity to set aside such a large amount of money for shooting a film? This is a moral issue. The State must determine its priorities. Do you spend millions on shooting a film or on taking care of the refugees Georgia is full of? According to the law the producers should have notified the inhabitants that they were going to shoot the film so that the people would not be scared when they heard explosions. But the inhabitants did not know anything about it,” Kutsnashvili said.

Kutsnashvili added that if the inhabitants of Gori think they were harmed morally they can sue individually in court. However while they are seeking justice it is possible that they will have to pay for the damage done to Gori by this improvised war from their own pockets through taxes. It is good when a Hollywood star comes to Georgia and takes part in a movie. But it would be better if they managed to shoot the movie without harming people morally and materially in the process.