Documentary Film “The Second Bank”

About 250,000 internally displaced persons live in various regions of Georgia. 18 years have past since these people left the conflict zone. Negotiations on returning IDPs to the villages near the border and ensuring their security continued for months and years. A small part of IDPs managed to return to the villages of Gali district at their own peril. Most of them settled in various regions of Georgia.

Since 2008 European Union launched large-scale programs directed at rehabilitation and integration of IDPs all over the country. Houses for IDPs were built and repaired in Zugdidi, Gori and Tbilisi, the IDPs’ apartments were privatized and they became the owners of those apartments.

The film is about Zemo Etsera settlement, which was among those 86 lucky ones which were repaired and renovated by the European Union.

European Union with the help of those organizations that still manage to conduct activities in Abkhazia tries to monitor the situation on the border and help the people who returned to Gali district. About 400 houses were rehabilitated in Gali district.

The best example of cooperation between European Union and Georgia in the conflict zone is the Enguri hydro power station. That power station supplies electricity to Abkhazia and much of the rest of Georgia. Currently, one part of the hydro power station is on Georgian-controlled territory and another part is in Abkhazia. Before the start of the Russian-Georgian war in August 2008 the European Union started to implement the project directed at rehabilitation of the power station, more than 10 million euros was spent on that project. The rehabilitation project had two main goals: restoring confidence between Georgians and Abkhazians and rehabilitation of Georgian energy sector.

Film Director – Toma Chagelishvili

Author – Sopo Mosidze

Cameraman – Ramaz Giorgashvili