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Graft Versus Host

Berlinale Shorts 2026
© Giorgi Gago Gagoshidze
A speculative documentary essay connecting the filmmaker’s medical history with post-Cold War geopolitical shifts and their impact on contemporary politics. The film originates from the filmmaker’s diagnosis with a rare form of cancer, T-cell lymphoma, a condition that causes the failure of the immune system and the body’s defence mechanisms. The medical treatment unfolds in three stages: 1. Remission of cancer cells; 2. Immune transplantation; 3. Adaptation to a new immune system. The film adopts these three stages as a framework to mirror the collapse of the Soviet Union, followed by the introduction of the free-market economy as a new system of governance, and a prolonged process of adaptation marked by chronic side effects. Far from claiming that biology offers a model of perfect social order, Graft Versus Host uses medical terminology to grasp complex geopolitical transformations of recent history and the layered roots of today’s unsettling political reality.

Trailer/Film Excerpt

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by Giorgi Gago Gagoshidze (Director, Screenplay) Germany / Georgia 2026 German, English, Russian, Georgian 31' Colour World premiere | Documentary form

Crew

Director Giorgi Gago Gagoshidze
Screenplay Giorgi Gago Gagoshidze
Cinematography Giorgi Gago Gagoshidze
Editing Giorgi Gago Gagoshidze
Music TeTe Noise, Mikk Madisson
Sound Design Zach Hart
Production Design Giorgi Gago Gagoshidze
Animation Giorgi Gago Gagoshidze
Producer Giorgi Gago Gagoshidze

Produced by

Dot.Comm Production

Berlin, Germany

Co-produced by

E.A. Shared Space

Tiflis, Georgia

World Sales

Dot.Comm Production

Berlin, Germany

Photos

Giorgi Gago Gagoshidze

Clara Ianni

Born in Kutaisi, Georgia in 1983, the artist and filmmaker is now based in Berlin. He studied at the State Academy of Fine Arts in Tbilisi and then took a degree in new media at the Berlin University of the Arts. His works focus on the moving image, the political background of its production and distribution, and its socio-political significance. They have been presented in numerous international contexts including at the Taipei Biennial in 2023, the National Art Center in Tokyo and the SculptureCenter in New York.

Filmography

2016 Its Just a Single Swing of a Shovel; documentary 2018 The innvisible hand of my father; documentary 2019 Mission Accomplished: Belanciege 2022 Stone of Hell; documentary 2026 Graft Versus Host; documentary

Bio- & filmography as of Berlinale 2026