The Invisible Hand of My Father

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Nugzari, the filmmaker’s father, joined one of the waves of migrants from Post-Soviet areas seeking employment in western European countries. He found jobs as a construction worker, mainly in Portugal. In August 2008, he had an accident at work. His right hand was dragged, twisted, and torn away by a concrete mixer. The film follows the visible traces of the invisible hand of Nugzari, contextualizing and examining them between the bureaucratic labyrinths which allowed him to get a disability pension and the symbolic familiar and social values of this "absent hand". A reflection throughout different political ideologies that are represented and governed by symbolic hands: From the Soviet Union - whose ideology claimed that its political body was governed by “the collective hand of the workers” to global capitalism - whose economic structure is "regulated" by "the invisible hand of the free market".

  • Duration: 24 Min.
  • Countries: Germany, Georgia, Portugal
  • Languages: English, Georgian
  • Subtitles: English
  • Production year: 2018

  • Director: Giorgi Gago Gagoshidze
  • Nominated: A38-Production Grant Kassel-Halle