Uta Beria’s Tear Gas is a fiction film shot during real anti-government protests in Georgia, bringing a love story into the middle of demonstrations that turned increasingly violent.
Uta Beria’s Tear Gas takes an unusual approach to filmmaking by placing a fictional love story inside real anti-government demonstrations in Georgia. The film premiered at the 2026 Locarno Film Festival, where the director described the project as an act of resistance.
The story follows 16-year-old Elene and her family as they become caught up in protests in Tbilisi. Elene and Andro find each other among thousands of demonstrators, but the atmosphere around them becomes increasingly dangerous as the protests are met with violence, rubber bullets and tear gas.
Rather than recreating the demonstrations with actors and controlled sets, Beria filmed the fictional story within actual protests. This approach allowed the production to capture the atmosphere, uncertainty and intensity of the events as they unfolded around the characters.
The film is set against a period of major political unrest in Georgia, when large demonstrations took place in Tbilisi. The real protests provide the backdrop for a personal story about young people, family tensions and the search for freedom.
Tear Gas is directed and written by Beria and is a co-production involving Georgia, France and Germany. The film was selected for Locarno’s Filmmakers of the Present competition, which focuses on emerging filmmakers and distinctive approaches to cinema.
By combining documentary-like images from real demonstrations with a fictional narrative, Beria creates a film in which the boundary between reality and fiction becomes difficult to separate. The result is both a coming-of-age story and a cinematic record of a turbulent period in Georgia.
