Bebia - à mon seul désir

Following the death of her grandmother (‘Bebia’), seventeen-year-old Ariadna returns to Georgia to attend the funeral. Back in her motherland, she receives an unusual and unexpected request: according to an ancient local tradition, Ariadna, as the youngest member of the family, is responsible for reuniting the body and soul of her grandmother by connecting a thread from the place of her death to the resting body.

At first reluctant to fulfil such a bizarre-sounding ritual, Ariadna soon finds herself carrying a single line of thread across 25km of unspoiled Georgian countryside, accompanied by Temo, a young man and family friend of uncertain motive. Traversing this exhausting and raw terrain over a number of days and nights, Ariadna is forced to confront the impact that the complex, sometimes cruel matriarch had on her not-so-distant childhood.

The first film from director and writer Juja Dobrachkous and shot entirely in stunning black-and-white, Bebia - à mon seul désir finds inspiration in Greek mythology, compassionately acknowledging that, even when the Minotaur is dead, it’s never easy to find your way out of the maze.