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Glory to the Queen

by Tatia Skhirtladze & Anna Khazaradze
Cinema Documentary  |  82 min |  AUT, GEO, SRB  |  2020

Premiere: Sept 04, 2020 CineDoc Tbilisi

Leading us to Tbilisi, Georgia, Glory to the Queen reveals the interwoven biographies of the world chess heroes Nona Gaprindashvili, Nana Alexandria, Maia Chiburdanidze and Nana Ioseliani. It offers rare insight into their present lives while at the same time exploring their lasting legacy. Today they are aging women, ordinary and extreme, pedantic and free. The city, indeed the whole country, are still marked by them – even if these marks are slowly fading. Although they played together as the Soviet Union’s Olympic team, they were also tough opponents and had not sat together at the same table for over 25 years. Glory to the Queen brings them together again in an encounter where memories emerge, the common history is recalled, and many differences come to light.

From left to right the four chess players: Maia Chiburdanidse, Nana Alexandria, Nona Gaprindashvili and Nana Ioseliani
Chess Olympiad, Lucerne 1982

Glory to the Queen is a film about winning and losing on the chessboard and in life. It is a cinematic reflection on how women’s struggle for independence and their rebellion against powerful male systems echoes in individual and collective life stories.

SCREENINGS