CAFx - Passing By by Ekaterina Kharbedia

Passing By

Ekaterina Kharbedia

Georgia

Tbilisi has a lot if underground crossing for pedestrians and it's role and only purpose was to help people cross the roads with intensive car traffic. However, with time they have turned into multifunctional public spaces, places where people communicate with each other - shops, beauty salons, ateliers, pharmacies and many more. At the same time, at night, the underground crossing transforms into absolutely different space - dark and dangerous, especially for women. The film explores the underground crosses from all sides of its multifunctional meanings.

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Ali Malikov, a well-known LGBTI+ activist, is the film's main character. In the background voice, they explain how cities are LGBTI+ exclusive and there is no safe space for queer people.

The film is about the poverty that young people go through and the situation leads many to use cabs to earn some pocket money. Unfortunately, there is a very competitive taxi business in the city and it makes the service and the prices decrease as well. The second biggest city Sumgayit is almost 30 KM away from Baku and there are cabs around the center you could take to Sumgayit only for 1 manat (around 0.55 EUR). The situation is the same with “1 manat” cabs to some other districts as well. There are many famous cab companies such as Uber and Bolt well functioning in Baku and their service prices are very low as well. The situation is advantageous to encourage people to take cabs instead of using their own car, however it leads to the exploitation of the cab drivers.