Birdboy and the General

Created out of fortuitous meetings at the annual international artists' assembly Artisterium (October 2013) in the Georgian capital of Tbilisi, Birdboy and the General works with the structure and tone of the fairy tale to explore contemporary concerns about consumerism, finance, power and priorities. At a time when populations globally feel manipulated by forces beyond their control, it is perhaps fitting that the central character is himself a marionette, afoot in the streets, parks and fields of the real but also occupying a dream space of desire and possibility, a wish to be defined, and recognised, in ways that lie beyond the reach of commerce and mercenary systems of authority.

Filmed in parks and markets within and beyond Tbilisi, and also in the ancient hermetic cave networks of Davit Gareja on the desert border with Azerbaijan, Birdboy and the General unfolds within a specifically Georgian reality to tell a larger story of place and purpose, control and change, aspiration and refusal. Given life by the evocative creations of Abkhazian puppeteer Denis Gonobolin, it speaks to forms of belonging rooted and realised in imagination, and looks to celebrate the potency of play, something slightly absurd, a skewed juxtaposition and leap of faith, to redirect the course of events, whether personal or public.

• http://fugitiveimages.org.uk/projects/vi...