Documentary film How the Room Felt (2020)

how the room felt პოსტერი

Organization: Microcosmoss

The film tells the story of a marginalized, bat strongly connected queer community, the female football team in Kutaisi.

The protagonist of the film - Lana and her friends: Anuka, Sopho and Anano, are young women players. They are trying to build a career as a woman footballer. In addition to daily strenuous exercise, they also have to deal with other life challenges.

At the same time, beyond friendship and teammates, they share other, everyday sorrows - all of them are the children of an immigrant mother.

The female football team, which has become a strong queer community for girls, is an open and a claustrophobic space at the same time.

Another active character in the film is the football team trainer- Paata; He is the only man on the team, and young women have ambivalent feelings about him.

The film develops as the 2019 national women’s football league takes place. Lana gets surgery on the knee because of a trauma, and cannot play anymore. Anuka also plays a traumatized leg. Sopo migrates abroad to work. Anano moves in with her dad. The team loses games one after another and everything is bad. At this time in Tbilisi, LGBTQ activists try to organize the first-ever pride, while the ultra-homophobic groups form gangs and patrol in streets and hunt for gays to beat them up. Lana is leaning against her crutch and is looking at the football field where her team is losing a game and Paata is shouting very loudly.

The film on queer thematic is an unexplored world for Georgian filmmakers. Therefore, great interest in the director was aroused from the first day to shoot the research material first in June 2018.