Georgian filmmaker Levan Koguashvili’s tender family tragicomedy, Brighton 4th will world premiere at the 2021 Tribeca Film Festival, running June 9-20. Shot by Oscar-nominated DP Phedon Papamichael (Nebraska, The Trial of the Chicago 7) and set within the Georgian emigré community of Brighton Beach, Brooklyn, the film is featured in the festival’s International Narrative Competition.

Laced with dry humor, and featuring a wonderful cast of mostly non-actors, Brighton 4th tells the story of former wrestling champion Kakhi (Levan Tediashvili, himself a former Olympic wrestling medalist) whose devotion to his family leads him on a journey from his home in Tbilisi to visit his son Soso (Giorgi Tabidze) in the Russian-speaking enclave of Brighton Beach. There he finds Soso living in a shabby boarding house populated by a colorful group of fellow Georgian immigrants. And Soso is not studying medicine, as Kakhi believed, but is working for a moving company and has accrued a $14,000 gambling debt to a local mob boss. Kakhi sets his mind to helping his hapless son out of his debt, leading to situations as often absurd as they are dire.

Brighton 4th was directed by Levan Koguashvili and stars Levan Tediashvili, Giorgi Tabidze, Nadezhda Mikhalkova (the daughter of famed Russian filmmaker Nikita Mikhalkova), and Kakhi Kavsadze.

Levan Koguashvili graduated from the Tisch School of Art’s Graduate Film Program in 2006. His debut film, Street Days, premiered at the Rotterdam International Film Festival, and his next film, Blind Dates, premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival. Brighton 4th is his third feature film.