The Hunter

Bakur Bakuradze is a film director born in 1969 in the Georgian capital Tbilisi. Before beginning his career in film he worked as an auto-mechanic and an economic engineer, in addition to serving in the Soviet Army from 1987 to 1989. He graduated from VGIK (Gerasimov All-Russian State Institute of Cinematography in Moscow) in 1998, and began a career as a scriptwriter and assistant director, working on a range of narrative and documentary projects. In 2005, his documentary film The Diamond Path (Almaznii Put’) was named “Best Film about Business” at the Ukranian journalistic convention PRESSzvanie (PRESSrank). In 2006, his 35-minute narrative film Moscow won recognition at the Kinotavr Film Festival, and later was included in a screening of short films at the Cannes Short Corner, and in non-competitive screenings at international film festivals in Oberhausen (Germany) and Turin (Italy). In 2008 he completed work on his feature film Shultes, which went on to win the grand prize at the 2008 Kinotavr festival in Sochi and was shown at Cannes as part of the “Directors’ Fortnight” program. It was screened in New York in September, 2008 as part of Bakuradze’s participation in the Open World Cultural Leaders Program.