The synagogue known in Tbilisi as the Georgian Synagogue stands on one of the main streets of the old town, close to the churches and the mosque of the same quarter. It is the principal place of worship for a community whose roots in Georgia are exceptionally deep: Jewish presence in this region is attested from antiquity, and Georgian Jews developed their own liturgy, language and customs distinct from other diasporas. The building is brick-fronted and taller than its neighbours, with a galleried, painted interior arranged around the ark. The film records the ordinary life of the place - study, prayer, the preparation of the Sabbath - and the specific traditions of Georgian Judaism, at a time when the community is much smaller than it once was, reduced by twentieth-century emigration. Placed within a district where a synagogue, a mosque and several churches stand within walking distance of each other, the programme presents Tbilisi's religious plurality as a lived arrangement rather than an abstraction.
