"This is a film where people and public spaces are used as co-conspirators in exploring the past through the prism of contemporary Europe. At times of the rise of ultra-nationalism within a contemporary European context, the film playfully grapples with the past not as a closed chapter, but as a living reality. Unless we engage the past as a living present it will insist in ways that are not only a warning for the future, but threaten the very possibility of equitable co-existence and a life livable for not only those that have recourse to assert power. The film's clash of staged reconstruction with real life refreshingly sheds light on the way history is continually present rather than preserved in aspic. While it is a playful and mischievous film, it presents a mirror to our present day. Recourse to ultra nationalism, and even fascism, resides in the core of national identity, it is already inside of us as a form of knowledge we should be afraid to forget, and continuously need to process in order to forgo its grip. It is a reality we remember from movies, literature, billboards and books. These are memories that travel as far as the history of a nation. So we need to make history anew, again and again, to not only unforget, but beget the world we wish there was, for all of us."

"Some films explain; others immerse. This one is not to be understood but experienced-like a dream where logic dissolves and meaning flickers just beyond reach. The director crafts a disjointed, hypnotic counter-broadcast. Images, texts, and melodies drift in a stream separately, yet together they create a world both infinite and precise, where the familiar becomes uncanny, daily life distorts into something eerie yet intimate. The film captures the disorienting texture of memory under dictatorship, where propaganda shapes childhood, and symbols seep into the subconscious. A lullaby echoes-soft, haunting, inescapable-blurring the line between comfort and unease. Like poetry, it thrives on the accidental, the fleeting, the inexplicable. It is an act of reclamation and rupture, almost playful in its defiance, breaking apart compositions and narratives once imposed, only to reconstruct them into something raw, elusive, and deeply felt. This is cinema as an open wound, as a lingering echo, as a rustic door-leading to forbidden memories while also opening toward possibilities of exit."

"Connecting passing people and places through the eyes of a delivery driver hitting the same daily potholes, we are reminded that travelling shots may well be a question of morality. A cinematic exploration of urban mobility where the images refuse to move, this film is bursting with animate characters stuck in a broken city. Although Tbilisi here emits a particular kind of otherworldly decay - broken cities, structures and systems feel increasingly familiar. When things break down, they need a push, and in the space between these still images, we can imagine all that is solid one day melting. Keep your eyes on the road."

"Although a commissioned film, it shows the process of making aluminium from the liquid mass to shields ready to be sold. But it is not the normal documentary we could expect. The beauty is in the scrupulous observations of tiny changes in the structure and colour of the product. At the same time the director does not lose contact with the labour force, the workers who stand behind. And those both qualities together makes it an unusual film that we wanted to honour."

"A truly human story beautifully crafted in a way both old fashion, and very much of the present moment. A moving story about a marginalised existence, uplifted by the arts."

"We were impressed by the film's playful use of archival footage and reenactment to shed light on a too-little-known episode of European history. Whilst full of dry, self-reflexive humour, the film manages to use its creative exploration of history to provide in-depth commentary on worrying contemporary political developments, specifically the rise of the global far-right. We applaud the film's effortless combination of experimentation and accessibility - not least due to its excellent editing - which serves to convey a timely warning against the formation of authoritarianism."

"This year's Big Screen Award goes to a film that explores themes of morality, family, resilience and dogma, a layered film that encapsulates a very local and perhaps little-known story in a profoundly universal theme. Driven by a complex leading role, the film is stunningly shot, literally composing its own language. A film that asks painful questions that were relevant almost a century ago and, as it turns out, are even more relevant today."