INSTRUCTIONS FOR SURVIVAL
Yana Ugrekhelidze | Germany 2021 | 72 Min. | OmeU
18.05. | 9pm
De France, Saal 1 | TICKETS
Alexandre has been living with Marie for more than seven years. Because of his transidentity and the mark “female” in his passport, he cannot find a job in the conservative country of Georgia. Even a doctor’s visit would be risky, which is why he organises a hormone therapy for gender transition by himself. In order to escape their hopeless situation and to be able to leave the country, Marie decides to become a surrogate mother for 12,000 US dollars. As time goes by, however, the couple develops an emotional relationship with the unborn child.
INSTRUCTIONS FOR SURVIVAL deals with the love of two people who stick together against all odds in the constant struggle against an excessive moralism.
Director: Yana Ugrekhelidze
Camera: Jule Katinka Cramer
Editing: Agata Wozniak
Sound: Yana Ugrekhelidze, Malin Schmidt
Music: Lennart Saathoff, Mikhail Khimakov
Sound Design: Gerald Schauder
Production: Yana Ugrekhelidze, Revaz Meliqishvili (Georgien), Fortis Fem Film
Funded by: Film- und Medienstiftung, Robert Bosch Grenzgänger Programm
presented by
SCREENINGS & AWARDS
Berlin IFF – Perspektive Deutches Kino, Ann Arbor Film Festival, DOK.Fest Munich, Inside Out Toronto, Frameline San Francisco, Seoul Women FF, Damn These Heels Utah, Mardi Gras, Zinegoak, Watch Docs
Teddy Award – Berlin IFF
Compass Award – Berlin IFF
Best Documentary Film at Ann Arbor FF
Best Director at Seoul IWFF, Zinegoak – Best Film + Human Rights Award
BIOGRAPHY
Born in Tbilisi, Georgia in 1984. After graduating with a degree in translation in Georgia, she took a bachelor in communication design at the Peter Behrens School of Arts in Düsseldorf and a diploma in film and animation at the Academy of Media Arts Cologne. Her first animated film, Summer Story, premiered at the 2017 International Short Film Festival Oberhausen and was a semi-finalist in the Student Academy Awards. Her graduation film Armed Lullaby was funded by the Film- und MedienStiftung NRW and premiered on 69.Berlinale in Generation Section. In 2019 Yana founds a film production company „Fortisfemfilm“. „Instructions for survival“ ist Yanas debut film, that was funded by Film and Medienstiftung and Robert Bosch Grenzgänger Programm. Currently Yana works on her new animational Project „ Five Spikelets Law“, dedicated to Holodomor – Terror-Famine in 1930s in Soviet Urkaine, that killed millions of Ukrainians.
FILMOGRAPHY
2022: Five Spikelets Law
2021: Instructions for Survival
2019: Armed Lullaby
2017: Summer Story
