The Invisible Border

This project portrays the life in and around Mejvriskhevi – a small Georgian village in the South Caucasus. The people who are living here are facing the consequences of the war between Russia and Georgia in August of 2008.

At the foot of the Caucasus, only a few miles north of Stalin‘s hometown Gori, the small Georgian village Mejvriskhevi can be found. Nowadays, it can only be entered from the south. The reason for this is the region behind: a territory called South Ossetia which was the scene of a military conflict between Russia and Georgia in August 2008. As a result, South Ossetia, which according to international law is part of Georgia, has become almost completely isolated from the rest of the country. The Russian military is occupying this disputed territory until today.
The so-called Administrative Boundary Line which separates Georgia from South Ossetia cuts off Mejvriskhevi by east and north. Although you wouldn't find fencing and barbed wire here, you can not pass the border from either side.
The young people can barely remember a time before the separation, but like the older villagers, they know where not to go in order to avoid being caught by Russian soldiers who are monitoring the borderline. Recent incidents prove this to be a serious threat.
Due to that, Mejvriskhevi's relationship to its former neighbors in the area now occupied, has almost completely ceased to exist. Keeping contact with relatives and maintaining friendships has become extremely difficult and it seems merely possible under these conditions.
In spite of all that, life has to go on: children attend school and during the summer they spend their free time by the river or on the grounds of the local sports field. You can see the elderly gathered by the roadside exchanging stories, cowherds tend their livestock and nearly every basement of the town is home to the traditional Georgian winemaking.
Despite international efforts, an improvement of the situation along the borderline is still not in sight.
But the people of Mejvriskhevi try their best to pursue a normal life under unusual circumstances.