Named for the late medieval Georgian monarchy that once stood proud on the same land, “ The Kartli Kingdom ” is a ruefully ironic nickname for less-than-royal lodgings: a derelict sanatorium in overgrown semi-rural grounds, overlooking the brighter lights of central Tbilisi in the distance. Once home to a state-of-the-art cardiology hospital that was shuttered in the early 1990s, its wards have since been occupied by hundreds of Georgians left homeless by the 1992 war in Abkhazia — now a devastated sovereign territory to which they cannot return. Over the last 30-odd years, what was intended to be a temporary shelter has become a long-term purgatory, and that eerily stretched stillness of time is poignantly captured in Tamar Kalandadze and Julien Pebrel ‘s debut documentary.

The foc

See Full Page