Glory To The Queen
Georgia, Austria, Serbia 2020

Leading us to Tbilisi, Georgia, Tatia Skhirtladze & Anna Khazaradze depict the life stories of the four legendary Soviet Georgian chess stars Nona (Gaprindashvili), Maia (Chiburdanidze), Nana (Alexandria) and Nana (Ioseliani), interweaving a tale about winning and losing on the chessboard and in life. From the beginning of the 1960s until the collapse of the Soviet Union, these four players revolutionised “women’s chess”, and for the first time raised it to “men’s level“ in an international context. Inspiring and empowering generations of women in Georgia, from housewives to young female chess players, Glory to the Queen is a story about rebelling against a powerful male system and a cinematic reflection on the struggle for independence and freedom. Playing between the past and the present, the film offers a unique insight into Georgia and the life of these four women who became icons of women’s emancipation during the Soviet era. Co-produced with the Austrian branch of Amour Fou (Minck/ Dumreicher-Ivanceanu), the film has its premiere in Luxembourg at CinEast 2020.