DESCRIPTION OF A FILM:

Nikole Bartsits is a 25 year old artist from Abkhazia. She has been painting since childhood. Her art style is mostly surrealistic and psychedelic, which is really uncommon in modern Abkhazia. Her work is often misunderstood and she often gets advice to paint in traditional style. However, during her period in Tbilisi, with help of friends and charity campaigns, exhibition of her work was held. Many experienced artists and foreign businessmen were impressed by her paintings, some of them were sold at 10 times higher price than in Abkhazia. She was acknowledged as a talented artist with a bright future.

However, news about her exhibition in Tbilisi leaked thru Sukhumi, her hometown. Because of the conflicted situation between Georgia and Abkhazia, she was seen as a spy and guilty for visiting Tbilisi. She was blackmailed by police forces of Abkhazia and had to go back to secure the safety of her family. It has been almost three years since she has been held as a hostage in her city, under intense supervision from the higher-ups. She can not cross the border of Abkhazia at her own will and practically had been quarantined all her life.

Nikole often says that she is dying as an artist, there is no future for her in a place with dogmatic consciousness.

The focus of this documentary is going to be about Nikoles life, her work, fantasies, dreams and struggles as an young independent artist, who lives in the world, where she’s often misunderstood and underappreciated and how she is trying to survive as an artist.

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