The Edge of the Night

In 2020, director Andrei Natotsinsky arrived in Sukhum, and the city greeted him with darkness: no lanterns were lit on the central square or around it. After learning that rolling blackouts are associated with cryptominers, who were attracted to Abkhazia by cheap electricity, Natotsinsky returned with a film crew. To figure out how the contrast between the active mining of cryptocurrency and the general devastation framed by wild landscapes works, he conducted four filming expeditions in three years. However, “Edge of the Night” is not a film about miners, or rather, not so much about them, as in general about a region that has not yet recovered from the war of 92-93, the subsequent conflicts and economic disaster. Immersing himself in local history, talking to a variety of people, watching the arrival and departure of miners, Natotsinsky tries to create an objective — as far as possible — picture of life in Abkhazia.