Films

2014 STAND BY YOUR PRESIDENT - 92’ / feature documentary
Sandra Roelofs, a Dutch girl from Terneuzen, became the First Lady of exotic but politically instable Georgia. After ten years in office her husband, the now controversial President Michael Saakashvili, cannot be re-elected.
Premiere IDFA 2014, cinema release march 2015, several international Film Festivals.
DUTCH & GEORGIAN SPOKEN | ENGLISH SUBTITLES

Premiere IDFA 2014, cinema release march 2015, 
Tbilisi International Film Festival 2015,  several international Film Festivals.

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2009  THE AVIATRIX OF KAZBEK - 110’ / The Netherlands, Belgium, Georgia 
Feature film set against the uprise of Georgian soldiers on the Dutch island of Texel in 1945. Inspired by the female hero in the Soviet musical 'The Aviatrix of Kazbek', the only film the Georgian soldiers carry with them, Marie takes destiny in her own hands; when the Georgians eventually revolt against the Germans, Marie chooses their side. 
Script Arthur Japin & Ineke Smits, director Ineke Smits. Music: Gio Tsintsadze

With Madelief Blanken, Zura Zhgenti, Kakha Kintsurashvili, Anamaria Marinca, Jack Wouterse, Peter Lohmeyer, Rick Paul van Mulligen, Sylvia Poorta, Lasha Bakradze

Closing Film - International Film Festival Rotterdam, Press Prize Commersant for Best Film – Moscow International FF, Nomination European Film Awards 2010, Film Festivals Sao Paulo, Cottbus, Cluj, Sevilla, Batumi, Chennai, and others

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2008 TRANSIT DUBAI - 72’ & 57’/The Netherlands
Documentary about the rapidly arising city of Dubai, seen through the eyes of four photography students.
Script&direction: Ineke Smits.
Music: Gio Tsintsadze

Premiered at IDFA-Amsterdam 2008. Winner of the Audience Award at Gdansk Film Festival 2009, and shown at various international Film Festivals

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2005  BLACK GOLD UNDER NOTECKA FOREST - 58’ / The Netherlands
Documentary about the impoverished inhabitants of a Polish forest, under which the biggest oilfield of Poland has been discovered.
Script&direction: Ineke Smits.
Music: Gio Tsintsadze

Premiered at IDFA-Amsterdam 2005, Silver Wolf Competition.
Special Mention of the Jury at Zagreb Dox 2006, In competition at various International Film Festivals

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2003 PUTIN'S MAMA - 51’/The Netherlands, Georgia
Documentary about Vera Putina, who lives in a small Georgian village and believes to be the mother of Russian president Vladimir Putin. NPS-National Dutch Television.

Nomination Silver Wolf Award at IDFA 2003, Winner HotDocs best Dutch documentary in National Programm, Toronto, Special Mention of the Jury, Zagreb Dox, In competition in Docaviv, Thessaloniki Docfest, Belgrade Docfest, Riga FF, Tbilisi FF, Sfantu Gheorghu FF, Warsawa FF

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2001 MAGONIA - 112'/The Netherlands, France, Georgia
A father, living on the edge of mental sanity, tells his son stories, exotic as well as close to home, about a mythical place in the clouds, called Magonia. 
Script Arthur Japin & Ineke Smits. Music: Gio Tsintsadze
With Dirk Roofthooft, Willem Voogd, Ramsey Nasr, Nato Murvanidze, Adama Koutayé, Linda van Dijck, Antje de Boeck, Jack Wouterse.

Winner of the Circulo Precolombino de Oro for Best Film, Colombia, Winner of the Golden Tulip in Istanbul IFF 2002, Turkey, Special Mention of the Jury at Festroia 2002, Portugal 
In Competition San Sebastian FF 2001, Mannheim FF 2001, Tbilisi IFF 2001, FIFF Creteil 2002, Bonn Filmmusik Biennale 2002, Brussels Age d’Or 2002, Leeds IFF 2002, Riga IFF 2002, MedFilm Rome 2002, Official Selection Toronto FF 2001, Goteborg FF 2002, Santa Fe FF 2001, Rotterdam IFF 2002, Chicago 2002, Mar del Plata FF, Singapore IFF, Petersburg FF 2002, Karlovy Vary IFF 2002, Madrid IFF 2002, Djakarta FF 2002, Bergen FF

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1999 NOSTALGIA - 56'/Georgia-The Netherlands, Georgia
Documentary about the effects of civil war in Georgia on a group of friends.

Script & direction by Tato Kotetishvili & Ineke Smits. Music Gio Tsintsadze

Premiere at International Film Festival Rotterdam 1999, Official Competition Leipzig Film Festival 1999, Germany, Winner of the Grand Prize at the International Documentary Festival 2000, Taiwan

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1996 THE CLOUD FACTORY - 25'/The Netherlands
A widowed factory worker tells fairy tales about a princess to his daughter Anna. When one day the travelling prostitute Eef calls at the factory again, the father yearns for her. Anna loses all faith in her father's fairy-tale world. That means the end of her childhood.

Direction: Ineke Smits. Script: Arthur Japin, Camera: Edwin Verstegen. Music: New Hip Stilen

With Jack Wouterse, Karo Lenssen, Hilde van Mieghem

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1996 A WHORE’S SERMON - 45'/The Netherlands
Two women working in a peep show, make each other life sour. Their relationship changes when an inexperienced woman from Eastern Europe appears.

Script: Arthur Japin. Director: Ineke Smits. Camera: Edwin Verstegen. Music: Maarten van Gent

With Ellen ten Damme, Ganna Veenhuysen en Mia Andrésen

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Time Rituals

1994 SIRKO - 38'/The Netherlands-England
Absurd love story between a shy ex-convict, a depressed white clown, and a trapeze girl in a punk circus. 
Written & directed by Ineke Smits
Graduation film National Film and Television School
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1989 MONAS PLEN - 50' /The Netherlands 
Musical fairytale inspired on a short story by Italo Calvino. 
Written & directed by Ineke Smits
Rotterdam Filmfestival, and several other international festivals
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1988 EMOTIONAL CONSTRUCTIONS - 13' loop /The Netherlands
Experimental film as part of a photo exhibition with the same title
Solo exhibition at CBK Rotterdam 1988
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1987 TIME RITUALS - 13' /The Netherlands
Ultrashort films by Gerard Hadders and Ineke Smits, 
Commissioned by VPRO television and Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam
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1985 AL HET GELUID VAN DE WERELD - 21'/The Netherlands
Experimental film about a boy who finds a shell on the beach that exposes him to different scenes of love.
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Photography Pieter Vandermeer

Tato Kotetishvili was a Georgian/Dutch filmmaker. He studied at the Theatre and Film Institute in Tbilisi, and from 1981 to 1990 worked as a director at the Georgian State Film Studio. There he made the films The Train and Anemia.

In 1990, he made a part of the long episodic film City Life. In the same year, Kotetishvili emigrated to the Netherlands and made two films here with his partner Ineke Smits: Rose, Violet and Lily (a satire of the Stalin era), and Nostalgia. This latter film, a documentary, gives a picture of a journey that Kotetishvili made to Georgia almost ten years after his departure. A few days after returning from his former homeland, Kotetishvili suddenly died, and Smits then completed the film.

NOSTALGIA FOR TATO:  Start film

Tato acted in Georgian and Dutch films and wrote several unrealized film scripts.

Still from Melies in Colours by Paul Ruven 
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1999 NOSTALGIA - 56'/Georgia-The Netherlands, Georgia
Documentary about the effects of civil war in Georgia on a group of friends.
Script & directed by Tato Kotetishvili & Ineke Smits
Premiere at International Film Festival Rotterdam 1999
Official Competition Leipzig Film Festival 1999, Germany, Winner of the Grand Prize at the International Documentary Festival 2000, Taiwan
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