• Video opera on 4 screens, loop, 2024
• Duration: 50 min.
• Language: Georgian, English, German with English subtitles
• Mousonturm co-production

• A detailed publication on the background to the work is available for sale

Accessibility of Location

Director: Ayla Pierrot Arendt 
Assistant Director, Dramaturgy: Kristina Roeder 
Performance: Pia Epping, Tabea Gregory, Lucy-Jo Petermann, Carolina Saad Vasconcellos, Lara-Marie Weine 
Choreography: Annabelle Dvir 
Cinematography: Ayla Pierrot Arendt, Maksim Pecherskii 
Composition: Nika Pasuri, Ani Zakareishvili 
Choral Text: Davit Khorbaladze 
Singing: Choir of the Opera of Kutaisi, Georgia 
Costume: Clara Rosina Strasser 
Make-Up Artist: Beate Bauer 
Make-Up Assistant: Rachel Ashton 
Prop Assistant: Josi Habel, Ina Röper, Nelly Granson 
1st Camera: Maksim Pecherskii 
2nd Camera, Drone Operator: Aksel Steen Boelsmand 
Camera Assistant: Tim Hartrick, Mona Nordhues 
Lighting Design: Torben Schäfer, Emil Basting 
Lighting Technology: Jimmy Kömpel, Felix Dörnfeld 
Montage: Ayla Pierrot Arendt, Paul Haas 
Set Photography: Eike Walkenhorst 
Production/Recording Management: Diana Koschlakov 
Production Assistant: Maja Lindner 
Internship: Alix Di Jusco 

A production by Ayla Pierrot Arendt, in co-production with Künstler*innenhaus Mousonturm. Supported by Hessen Film & Medien, the Cultural Office of the City of Frankfurt am Main, the Hessian Ministry of Science and Art, as well as the Autorenstiftung Frankfurt am Main. The artistic exchange with the Georgian artists and the journey to Georgia were made possible by Culture Moves Europe, funded by the Goethe Institute and the European Union. The preceding research trips to Georgia in 2023 were funded by the Gwaertler Foundation. 

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Georgia gained its independence in 1991 – Germany being the first country to acknowledge it. Since then, the two countries have maintained a friendship, marked especially by the significant presence of German investors and funding institutions in Georgia. However, Georgia – despite being geographically located in Asia but still considered a border of Europe – remains a nation marked by conflict. The last armed confrontation with Russia took place in August 2008. The breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia have been occupied by Russia since then. For Georgians, it is nearly impossible to access these areas, and borders are frequently redrawn, resulting in territorial losses for Georgia. Russia's invasion of Ukraine has further intensified the divided stance toward Russia.

Since 2023, Georgia has held official candidate status for EU membership. However, negotiations were suspended in June 2024 after the Georgian government passed the so-called "Foreign Agent" law, despite strong opposition from both its own citizens and European entities. This law threatens the funding—and consequently, the existence—of individuals and organizations that advocate for human rights, democracy, and social justice. Protesters express concerns about increased repression and discrimination, particularly against the LGBTQIA+ community. Many in the population perceive these developments as a setback on Georgia's path toward closer integration with the European Union and as a sign of the government’s growing authoritarianism, marked by a closer alignment with Russia.

The decision to choose Georgia as the central setting for “DEATH IN PEACE” was significantly influenced by Ayla Pierrot Arendt’s participation in the Caucasus Cinema Filmmaker Residency in 2022. The region’s geopolitical situation became the starting point for dialogues on topics such as land ownership, territorial losses, border shifts, and the fear of war. During this time, hundreds of thousands of Russians fled to Georgia via the Military Road following the announcement of mobilization. The sight of kilometers-long traffic jams of private cars reminded many Georgians of the August 2008 war, when tank convoys used this road as the only crossing of the Caucasus between Georgia and Russia.
 

Ayla Pierrot Arendt is an artist and director. She lives and works in Frankfurt am Main. Arendt studied painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna and completed a master's degree in choreography and performance at the Institute for Applied Theater Studies in Giessen. Since 2013, Arendt's artistic focus has been on combining video art with live music on stage. Her work is characterized by a dialogical approach. She transfers intersectional perspectives to literary or mythological figures in order to question cultural narratives and social structures. Her productions have premiered at Künstler*innenhaus Mousonturm, including the multimedia video opera “POLITEIA” (premiere: 17.06.2022). In fall 2022, she took part in the Caucasus Cinema Autumn in Georgia as a filmmaker and scholarship holder. In the summer of 2023, Arendt was artist-in-residence at the contemporary art institution Artport in Tel Aviv, IL, where she made her experimental documentary “GAZE IN BATTLE”, which won the prize for best short film at the Lichter Filmfest 2024.

Annabelle Dvir is an Israeli-Georgian choreographer, vocal artist, live sound composer and dance performer. She lives and works in Israel. Dvir holds a B.A. and M.A. from the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance and completed the choreography program at the KELIM Choreography Center. Together with the developing “women ensemble - dancers & musicians” she explores the tensions between sensation and perception as well as the heard and the seen in live performing arts. She also works with the dance ensemble “Women of Sounds”, with whom she realized the live music and dance epic “Crescendo Gold” in 2023. “Crescendo Gold” is set imaginatively in the Caucasus Mountains and on the Black Sea and deals with memory, cultures and traditions. In 2021, she created the concept and choreography for “Fictions”, which was shown in Cologne and Tel Aviv, and wrote the music composition and texts. Dvir has shown her work internationally in Germany, Italy, Israel, Los Angeles, Lithuania and Spain, among others. She created the choreography for “DEATH IN PEACE”.

Davit Khorbaladze is a director and playwright. He lives and works in Tbilisi, GE. As an artist, he deals with experimental interpretations of current issues. Sexuality, the search for identity, state repression against the population, social inequality and the fate of minorities – this is an incomplete list of topics that Khorbaladze deals with in his plays and performances. In 2023, the play “Unlove”, which he wrote and directed, premiered as the second part of his “UN” trilogy at the Open Space Theater in Tbilisi. The trilogy revolves around crises, while “Unlove” explores the threshold between the presence and absence of love. In 2021, Khorbaladze directed his own play “Protected Area” and in the same year composed the sound design for “Ramming”, which was performed at the Poti Valerian Gunia State Drama Theater. In 2020, he created his video performance “Daddy Hangs Himself in the Forest”. For “DEATH IN PEACE”, Khorbaladze wrote the Georgian choral lyrics for the compositions by Nika Pasuri and Ani Zakareishvili. He co-composed and interpreted two of the songs.

Nika Pasuri is a composer. He lives and works in Tbilisi, GE. He studied arts management and economics, completed his education in composition and music theory in Tbilisi and then studied composition at the State Conservatory in Tbilisi, in Oslo and completed his master's degree in Amsterdam. Pasuri then worked as a composer for the theater, including for various productions by the renowned director Data Tavadze at the Royal District Theater Tbilisi, the Badisches Staatstheater Karlsruhe, the Schauspiel Frankfurt, the Staatstheater Dresden and the Deutsches Theater Berlin. He not only works internationally in the field of theater music, but also composes film music, for example for the silent film “Arsena Jorjiashvili” by Ivane Perestiani or the documentary “Stone of Hell” by Tekla Aslanishvili. For “DEATH IN PEACE”, Pasuri composed the music together with Ani Zakareishvili, which was sung by the choir of the Kutaisi State Opera. 

Maxim Pechersky is a cameraman, editor and documentary film director. He lives and works in Berlin. Pechersky graduated as a documentary film director at the Gerassimow Institute for Cinematography in Moscow, RU. He has worked on many artistic projects, among others together with Ragnar Kjartansson, Curver Thoroddsen, Julian Charrière, Nastya Livadnova, Johannes Förster, Avni and Rebecca Dauti and Ulyana Podkorytova. In 2020-2021, he screened the experimental film “The Year of The White Moon” at various festivals, including the Oberhausen Short Film Festival and the Sheffield Doc Fest. In 2022 he was artist-in-residence at the “Typography” residency in Yerevan, AM. For “DEATH IN PEACE” he took over the position of Director of Photography and camera. 

Kristina Roeder is a dramaturg. She lives, studies and works in Frankfurt am Main. Roeder first completed her B.A. in Literature and Linguistics at RWTH Aachen and is currently completing her M.A. in Theater, Film and Media Studies at Goethe-Universität in Frankfurt am Main. During her bachelor's degree, she already completed several directing internships and assistantships, including in Aachen, Bonn and Vancouver, CA. From 2021 to 2022 she worked as artistic director and theater pedagogue in a theater pedagogical project of the DRK Offenbach. She is also active in the independent theater scene in Frankfurt am Main as an assistant director and dramaturg and worked as an assistant director on Ayla Pierrot Arendt's multimedia opera “POLITEIA. For “DEATH IN PEACE”, Roeder was involved in the conception and as dramaturg.

Ani Zakareishvili is an electronic music producer and DJ. She lives and works in Tbilisi, GE. She studied music technology at the State Conservatory in Tbilisi. She then completed further studies with honors at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, FL. Zakareishvili is particularly interested in experimental, ambient music, producing original sounds and textures using a variety of sampling techniques. She was born into a family of musicians and was exposed to classical music and art already at a young age. She is currently working on various projects, actively composing in the field of experimental music and DJing in various clubs, including the famous Bassiani Club in Tbilisi. For “DEATH IN PEACE”, Zakareishvili composed the music together with Nika Pasuri, which was sung by the choir of the Kutaisi State Opera.
 

The Georgian Natia fears that she will no longer be able to visit her father's grave because the Russian border is continuing to shift. At this border, she meets the Russian deserter Andrej, who is fleeing to Georgia. She weighs up her options: Is he friend or enemy? Andrei eventually becomes the victim of a murder on the German embassy grounds in Tbilisi, when the paranoid German investor Pierre seems to see a bear and reaches for a gun he found on the lawn earlier. Was it Nika's gun, the Georgian soldier who wonders who he would actually give his life for? Pierre's wife, the German diplomat Helena, is now caught between two sides: Where is the limit of diplomacy? Will the deserter's death trigger a war?