{"id":6352,"date":"2026-08-21T11:05:53","date_gmt":"2026-08-21T11:05:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/relocationobserver.com\/?p=6352"},"modified":"2026-08-21T11:05:53","modified_gmt":"2026-08-21T11:05:53","slug":"supporting-role-director-ana-urushadze-preps-fear-of-butterflies-a-detective-story-with-mysticism-and-a-touch-of-body-horror-exclusive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/relocationobserver.com\/?p=6352","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Supporting Role\u2019 Director Ana Urushadze Preps \u2018Fear of Butterflies,\u2019 a Detective Story With \u2018Mysticism and a Touch of Body Horror\u2019 (EXCLUSIVE)"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<div>\n<!-- do not apply CSS styles to this element! --><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>\n\tGeorgian director Ana Urushadze (\u201cScary Mother\u201d), whose Rotterdam prizewinner \u201cSupporting Role\u201d plays in competition this week at the Sarajevo Film Festival, is prepping her third feature film.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/relocationobserver.com\/?p=6350\">Meghan Markle Eyes Acting Return After Move Back to the U.K.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\n\t\u201cFear of Butterflies\u201d follows a young woman on the cusp of 30 who is \u201cgoing through some bizarre things, mentally and physically,\u201d Urushadze told\u00a0<em>Variety<\/em>. The director described the film, which explores the mordant consequences of a woman \u201cnot accepting her body,\u201d as a \u201cdetective story with a little bit of mysticism and a touch of body horror.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\n\tThe title riffs on Urushadze\u2019s own \u201csevere fear\u201d of the winged insects, which she has harbored from an early age. Recently, she explained, she tried to tackle her phobia with the help of a psychologist friend, who posited the question: If a butterfly was a human being, what would it be like?<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\u201cI was like, \u2018What kind of question is this?\u2019\u201d the director said, laughing. \u201cBut then, weirdly, I knew the answer. I told him a butterfly would be a very sick person, an invalid. Either very ill or handicapped. And he said, \u2018That\u2019s it. It\u2019s your fear to be like that.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\n\tIt was an ah-ha moment for the director, an avowed hypochondriac. \u201cSomething clicked,\u201d she said \u2014 although that hasn\u2019t helped to conquer her phobia.<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\u201cFear of Butterflies\u201d will reunite Urushadze with Estonian producer Ivo Felt\u2019s Tallinn-based shingle Allfilm, a co-producer on \u201cSupporting Role.\u201d With a bitter rift dividing the Georgian film industry, which has witnessed a long-running boycott by many directors, producers, actors and other industry professionals against the state-backed Georgian National Film Center, the director said she\u2019s looking abroad for financing \u2014 and isn\u2019t even certain if the film will be made in Georgia. \u201cI\u2019m really open to anything,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>\n\tIt is a bittersweet prospect for Urushadze, whose much-feted feature debut \u201cScary Mother,\u201d which won the prize for best first feature at Locarno in 2017 as well as the top honors in Sarajevo, was described by\u00a0<em>Variety<\/em>\u2019s Jessica Kiang as\u00a0\u201ca startling debut that wholly earns its place as standard-bearer for one of the most exciting and distinctive national cinemas to have emerged in recent years.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\n\tFor her follow-up, \u201cSupporting Role,\u201d a Tbilisi-set nocturne starring a captivating Dato Bakhtadze, Urushadze follows \u201ca lumbering movie star on a surreal and wryly melancholic soul-search,\u201d as described by\u00a0<em>Variety<\/em>\u2019s\u00a0Beatrice Loayza, praising the \u201cmesmerizing effect\u201d of the director\u2019s moody, meandering drama in a glowing review.\u00a0It arrives in the main competition in Sarajevo after winning\u00a0a Special Jury award and the\u00a0FIPRESCI prize at Rotterdam\u00a0in January.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/relocationobserver.com\/?p=6348\">\u2018The Voice of Hind Rajab\u2019 Director Calls Israeli Investigation Into Killing of Palestinian Girl a \u2018Smokescreen\u2019: \u2018What Is Needed Is Justice\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\n\t\u201cSupporting Role\u201d shares more than just mordant comedy and a growing haul of festival accolades with its predecessor,\u00a0which tells the story of a middle-aged woman who finds freedom in the act of writing her first novel.\u00a0It was during the auditions for \u201cScary Mother\u201d that Urushadze conducted a search for an elderly man to play the role of the protagonist\u2019s father. The search turned sour when one of the actors was put off to discover a young, inexperienced woman sitting in the director\u2019s chair.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\n\tThe man turned down the role, but gifted Urushadze with an encounter whose \u201cweird tension of young meets old\u201d would provide the spark for \u201cSupporting Role.\u201d\u00a0The film follows Niaz (Bakhtadze), a once-famous star of Georgian cinema who embarks on a bizarre and fatalistic odyssey of self-transformation, after an unsettling audition with a young female director looking to cast him in a minor part.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\n\tThough topical in its exploration of a very contemporary theme \u2014 that of a man of faded glories discovering the world has passed him by \u2014 \u201cSupporting Role\u201d is above all a riveting character study. Urushadze presents\u00a0a sympathetic portrait of Niaz, a man who once embodied a certain type of swaggering masculinity but now seems adrift in the modern world.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\n\tInhabiting the role with \u201ctremendous gravitas,\u201d in the words of Loayza,\u00a0Bakhtadze almost seems born for the part. Yet it was a stroke of luck that brought the actor into Urushadze\u2019s orbit.<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\u201cI had three other actors in mind \u2014 amazing actors. But things didn\u2019t work out,\u201d the director said. \u201cIn the end, there was like one month and a half left [until shooting began], and we didn\u2019t have an actor. It was crazy. Then Dato appeared out of the blue.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\n\tThe chemistry between the two was apparent. \u201cIt clicked immediately,\u201d\u00a0Urushadze\u00a0said, acknowledging now that she \u201ccan\u2019t imagine anyone else\u201d playing the part of Niaz. <\/p>\n<p>\n\tAnd despite the film\u2019s premise \u2014 and the title\u2019s promise \u2014 it didn\u2019t hurt that\u00a0Bakhtadze still boasts the charisma and screen presence of a leading man.\u00a0\u201cThe camera loves him.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/relocationobserver.com\/?p=6346\">Woody Harrelson Ready to Direct Another Live Film, Compares Jason Bateman\u2019s \u2018The Cackling of the Dodos\u2019 to Martin McDonagh and the Coen Brothers<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\n\tThe Sarajevo Film Festival runs Aug. 14 \u2013 21.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The acclaimed Georgian filmmaker is prepping her third feature, following the Rotterdam prize-winning &#8220;Supporting Role.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6351,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4706,1620],"class_list":["post-6352","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-film","tag-ana-urushadze","tag-sarajevo-film-festival"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - 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