shortest most famous son says a stunning full and but unforgotten. modern protest is demonstrate against putin. a legit russian war crimes in the two thousand and eight conflict. the grave of a victim of that rousseau george involved. a border that is not supposed to be called the border. so words are called the mode of the whole i'm going to write that georgia is divided into of course that's an awful thing. you know sort of odds of it all almost today this may sound very dystopian this is an argument but russia could divide this country. and keep a piece of it for itself those powers are not enough for.

god to do them and it's god this piece of graffiti says we remember that. it was probably sprayed here just yesterday heidi that you can see the red devil in the background of all the dates from the past two centuries in which russia did bad things to us georgians are going to stop the old growth such a lot of people know nothing about the states are still worse they know them and still don't get that russia is our enemy is now let's head to the relative of the system and. the japanese company as debut novel and his plays have won the most prestigious georgian literature awards. even is to find out where georgia and its nearly four million inhabitants are headed first stop this demonstration in the capital tbilisi. it's

a strange mixture the protesters include les. distance and far right extremists feminists and gays and homophobes what seems to unite them is their nationalism ogust two thousand and eight so the flare up of the growing conflict the research georgian born lasted five days claimed eight hundred fifty lives and displaced many thousands. since then russia has occupied the former georgian territories of a past year and south ossetia an area amounting to a fifth of the country. the slogan on the sign a vulgar equivalent of pittsburgh at last. i am. doubt it is meeting some friends in front of the swiss embassy switzerland has been mediating between georgia and russia because the two countries have no direct diplomatic relations. images from the war human rights

groups say both sides committed abuses but as at the tbilisi rally only the russian war crimes are on the agenda. the public humiliation of georgian soldiers depicted here made a lasting impression on darby. song dogs most all i have to admit that the sheer power of russia makes me feel insecure all. this giant empires and leave us alone and it's hard to fight against that i was one of them that's why i have this feeling of being completely unprotected. now and this by pissed on the russian president. and the nationalistic euphoria that followed georgian independence ninety ninety one the country's ethnic minorities were left out of the equation and to collectively thrust into the arms of the russian spy. gadgets tab.

an eighty five kilometer drive from tbilisi the city of gori. is heading to his next stop the josef stalin museum. built in the soviet era the museum is a bizarre memorial to the brutal dictator joseph is our universe starting. it paints a picture of a benevolent father of his country. many of the visitors here are curious western tourists but some are genuine fans of stalin who make the pilgrimage to the strife that is dedicated to one of the worst mass murderers of the twentieth century. up. here. in the museum they say that most of the stalin supporters come from russia.

but no one is willing to say that to the camera guy. is there anything. when daddy sees the pictures here he can't stop thinking of the atrocities of the stalin era in particular the so-called great virtue of nine hundred thirty seven to thirty eight during which more than one hundred twenty georgian intellectuals were executed. duffy says that swears germany has taken steps to come to grips with its nazi history georgia has done very little to publicly reappraise stalin. the old museum which was built back then to glorify starving the beast mistress and since then nothing has been changed. nothing has been added to the news out of just

a few pieces of information that mentions stalin's purges and the repression of those who started with that it's a propaganda museum. but nowadays a lot of people view it as a kind of museum of a museum. the graphic novel. one tiny room is devoted to the war of two thousand and eight. was made to go to michael dudley it asks the museum's curator and see an artist really why she hasn't changed anything in this uncritical celebration. there's. really no hard as it was a shirtless hansen's and this is a museum and we have to tell the story of a man's life in a very short time going through tourism it's about his life and work. and what that was said to do back then all the material came from the communist party. today

we try to show the man. a very isolated man by the way a loner. who ruled over a land with one hundred seventy million people. or so of uses and more broadly and all of the negative material anyone who wants to read that can find it on their computers all over the internet our visitors come here to get to know style and the man knows there will always go slow. and all his travels davita immediately takes note somebody experiences. until twenty ten a large statue of stalin student central gori. dubbed it would like to seek out the fallen monument supposedly it's now lying in a disused industrial area outside the town the curator refused to tell him the exact location saying it would be shameful to display the great man in that way.

rescue is a very good thing to be a student friend of a friend davita gets in touch with a chicken farmer from the area. says son leads him to the overthrown style and i think. that. the two men have a difference of opinion about the fallen dictator. says this is not a stalinist but he had money as the dictator as a kind of mystical being. restored it works with. history shows that it's always the same of course we have a saying in georgia with it's the times that rain not caves that it's not an insult to stand in stature that someone who's not thinking right all of them do it here on

the scrap here. and once you know real history not fake history and realize what kind of man he was. please translate this word for word. says some would like to see stalin back on his pedestal in sensual glory. davita is considering working the hypothetical return into his new novel. without. i don't. really haven't thought much about it so far but yes maybe in my pessimistic or dystopian novel it could happen i see the current trend in russia where real stalin cult is growing again and they show quite openly how much interest they have how they worship him even russian politicians are doing that is another example of how strong russian influence is so well think about that for my book is very governor michelle obama she was warm when i moved to england so

i think it was very it was a meeting the whims of all the many of you or i would i would. this is not an international border despite what the sign claims georgia on this side of the fence itself a seashell on the other georgians call it occupied territory the south seasons and the russians say an independent state. diplomats refer to this fence as the administration boundary night auditor i don't. fully go there you bend so much money. it's also expensive for russia to keep it to monitor it and punish us georgians. and then they make such an embarrassing mistake of the translation. i have no idea how that could have happened. the words

passage is forbidden is mistranslated into georgian as expenses are forbidden. georgians refuse to call the demarcation line a border because that would mean accepting the division of their country. since two thousand and eight observers from the e.u. monitoring mission in georgia have been patrolling here. in twenty seventeen alone favorite just had one thousand six hundred incidents the conflict is ten shabelle here every day. i don't really believe that my literary vision fantasy will actually become reality georgia this is fiction i'm like all negative fiction it's also a warning. it is good for me to see this because it helps me imagine what

a fictitious border in my book might look like. the fence divided the village of to valley of the knights again and again georgian fanis who cross over to work their fields on the south the solution side get arrested after being beaten and forced to pay a considerable fine they are let go. to anyone caught crossing the line for the third time the risks up to two years in jail in south ossetia that happen to neighbors of hama a form in german teacher. you have been on in god we have a garden that's right over there on the borderline of them if i go over there i can't take my grandchildren because they could be abducted any second by all the farmers and work over there in the garden is in each and every day people get

caught and hauled away and i live in constant fear. three times suffer a seizure and russian soldiers set fire to thomas house but would she leave the area you never. hear about because this is where i work this is where i live it's my home it's my country it's my village where could i go where would i be allowed to go home and talk that's true right now what do you think. you cannot leave i never want to leave i will go on living here i will die here and my children and grandchildren will live here my name and to live.

right next to the highway exterior bonnie a settlement built as an emergency shelter ten years ago. it still has. houses eight thousand of the total thirty thousand ethnic georgians who were expelled from south ossetia. there's a sense of resignation on the streets here via test just been out shopping. he's the only one willing to speak to die of it on camera. you'll never get used to it but what can we do it's very hard for the older people to bear this many of them have already died but the young people are only now starting to fix up these houses. they have no choice. this is party on the black sea coast. the port city is to laugh a dated as far as davita can see there's been little development here for years.

party is important for the georgian economy but it's not a place many tourists are likely to visit. this is where davi grew up in a working class family his parents still live here as does his sister with whom he's very close. but although david loves to see his sister cutter and his nieces not her and he says he'd never move back to portie every visit here recalls the negative experiences of his you've. done openly gay something that can be risky in provincial georgia although his family accept his sexuality.

david is expounding his theory about the division of the country his sister doesn't buy it. i don't believe georgia would be divided into two parts how could that happen i simply don't believe it. for delegates nieces dottle as they call him as a kind of cultural trailblazer. he says and he introduces them to unusual literature. today it's especially hard for him to say goodbye. his come to the hardest part of his journey. on the first day of the two thousand and eight will his cousin child died in a hail of russian bones. davita couldn't make it from tbilisi to the funeral

because all the roads and rail tracks were blocked by russian tanks. since then he has never dared to come here. he often weeps over the thoughts of his nineteen year old cousin who had been accepted to a university in dubai he died the day before he was scheduled to fly out. silva was killed while rescuing his wounded comrades he was awarded a posthumous medal for bravery. sits at the grave for a long time he doesn't want to talk here. a

few hours later we accompany him to his favorite place and course he. is relieved to have finally been to the cemetery but the middle doesn't interest him. it seems opposite it makes absolutely no difference. to me. this is a big consolation to my aunt she's really proud about. guns it's a big comfort for her. my pluggers she says but for me tempers i just wish she was still alive that's just not the movement you know it's been.

done to takes the train back to tbilisi. since its independence nearly three decades ago georgia has undergone visible modernization and the country's political system has developed in parallel to its infrastructure. but still children artists and intellectuals do not feel entirely free. you can write whatever you want or you can do what you want to the government won't interfere. in front of a large part of our society is extremely conservative. and conservative is far too mild a word. and that part of society will not let us live freely. to put it in

a nutshell you have the freedom to express yourself but at the same time you don't . is sitting close by has been listening to the. she left the country twenty years ago for life in europe for her miss in london. she says the changes in georgia happening much too slowly she comes back once a year and experiences the country as still lacking freedom as bad as it used to be fat nine states that. this is things that you pay attention to him. right so. yeah. yeah that's. all. to police he is the cultural and political center of georgia and its religious center to. the orthodox christian church wields

a huge amount of power and by western european standards it's very conservative. nowadays duffy spends almost more time abroad than here in the old quarter of tbilisi. from an early age he knew that he wanted to travel which is why he learned german russian and swedish his english is so good that when he was twenty one he was commissioned to chance lace harry potter into georgia. after a week of moving around georgia davi it is that. he spends the next few hours typing up his notes from his travels. it started out as a research trip for his new book but some of the stages proved much more emotional

than he expected. in the coming months he will be developing his fantasy about the division of georgia into two parts one loyal to russia and one oriented toward. here at the royal district the attentive lisi daveed and his old friend directed dancer to say are inspecting the stage set for their production of dov its play tiger and lion. of the football. even if he does have believes that artistic freedom is still under threat in georgia. got the deline all you're so right with mark would have still totally easy to shock audiences or readers in this country. which is why there are always attempts to control free speech and origin. more drooly that's also being

considered at the government level. just recently there was another initiative to control artists more strongly but luckily it failed because. there were protests it. put down beat the theatre is a safe haven. even here in tbilisi it is hard to lead an openly gay life. the riots the repressive measures every time someone reveals their sexual identity mess up but there are massive reprisals also in political circles to go where gay people are often blackmailed and of course this reaction is not only supported by the georgian church but also instigated. by much of this is a huge problem and the government can't well chicago won't solve it the problem are

almost at the hospital there on. this cafe in the old course have to be lisi is a popular meeting place for artists. dubbed it is having a discussion with a psychologist friend thomas casually. tama is a member of the georgian ethnic minority have suffered a seizure. his family was driven out by the war and lived for a while. all in the center of on the emergency shelter. daddy tells toma about his experiences on the trip his first encounter with the administrative boundary line left a deep impression as did the meeting with tom marr the german teacher whose neighbors are regularly abducted wrote to the control of me because when you go there and

experience it in person the fence stops being a symbol or a cool design at a demonstration of the trick of totally different emotions especially when you meet people who live five meters away from that fence. i don't want to sound sentimental but that was the moment where it became clear to me how differently those villages see the division would be most of it's a problem for them every single day this program and there's music program on. until most settled into police is some time ago. and davi to look forward not back . they wish that more democratic and artistic impulses would come here from europe . when they start to feel stifled by their country they can find respect by traveling in the west. but for both of them heard this georgia.

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elephants are being kept in line by bees.