Corn Island

During the annual spring torrent, the Enguri River washes soil from the Caucasus to the Black Sea, creating tiny islands in its wake. It’s a place of pristine beauty — until gun shots ring out. For this is the site of ethnic strife between Georgians and Abkhazians, who claim independence. Symbolic perhaps of his people’s resistance, an old Abkhaz man paddles up to a tiny island in the river, then slowly and painstakingly builds a wood dwelling by hand. One day he brings his teenaged granddaughter, who obediently helps him work the soil. Not given to displays of emotion – or even conversation – they toil through the seasons, planting corn to earn their livelihood. The tranquility is sporadically disturbed by shooting on shore. As soldiers motor by on patrol, Grandpa insists the land belongs only to its creator. Ruminative and philosophical, CORN ISLAND reminds us that all of man’s endeavors are finally subject to the vicissitudes of nature. (In Georgian, Abkhazian, and Russian with subtitles) – B.B.