Hadamo

The inhabitants of the Georgian village Pankisi Gorge are convinced that all important questions about life and death must be resolved through the media- tion of an authority. Altzaney is an elderly woman, and it is she who fulfills this role in the town. She is allowed to enter into the lives of others, to look after them, and to take on responsibility for them. Her obligation is to resolve controversies, calm conflicts, and above all to mediate between two worlds, that of the living and that of the dead. In fact, Altzaney is the only person entrusted to care for the dead. But what is it that makes this graceful and smiling woman such an authority and so highly respected in a strongly male-dominated, patriarchal society? And what is the price she must pay?