Anna Gurji

Anna Giorgobiani (Georgian: ანა გიორგობიანი; born 1 April 1991), also known by her stage name Anna Gurji (Georgian: ანა გურჯი), is a Georgian actress. She first appeared in film as a child, in a short documentary named "Town" (1998). She made her dramatic debut in the short drama-film "If This Day Never Happened" (2006). In 2007, she got a role in an American indie film, "Signals"^[1] in which she played the character Afanasiia. Gurji then gained the lead role as an 18th-century violinist named Cinka Panna, in Slovak-Hungarian feature film "Cinka Panna", directed by Dusan Rapos.

Biography and Career

Gurji, a native of Tbilisi, Georgia, began her acting career at the age of 6, appearing in a number of commercials as well as in a documentary. In 2005, at the age of 14, she landed her first role as a lead actress in a short feature film called "If This Day Never Happened" (2006), directed by her sister Khatuna Giorgobiani. With the help of foreign casting directors, Anna was given a role in the US TV project "Signals" (2008), directed by Carlos Etzio Roman, which aired in New York International Independent Film and Video Festival in Los Angeles in 2008.

In 2008, Gurji won a lead role in the full-length historical feature film "Cinka Panna" (2008), in which she plays the famous 18th Century Hungarian prima donna.^[2] An international co-production, the film was directed by Dusan Rapos and produced by Aron Sipos and Katarina Vanzurová. In 2009, Gurji portrayed a foreign exchange student in Timothy Rhys independent feature film, "Rufus Rex", and also appeared in Jonathan Nolan's film "Ape".

Gurji appeared in the controversial 2012 anti-Islamic film Innocence of Muslims, which sparked violent incidents worldwide, including the murder of United States Ambassador to Libya J. Christopher Stevens, by protesters who rioted in response to its crude satire of the prophet Mohammed. Gurji and other actors in the cast later said that they were misled by the film's director Nakoula Basseley Nakoula.^[3] Gurji had been told that

"The film was about a comet falling into a desert and different tribes in ancient Egypt fighting to acquire it, for they deemed that the comet possessed some supernatural powers. The movie that we were doing in Duarte was called Desert Warrior, and it was a fictional adventure drama. The character 'George' was a leader of one of those tribes fighting for the comet. There was no mention ever by anyone of 'Muhammed', and no mention of religion during the entire time I was on the set. I am one hundred percent certain nobody in the cast, and nobody in the US artistic side of the crew, knew what was really planned for this Desert Warrior."

The movie, according to Gurji, was re-dubbed and significantly changed from what she had participated in making.^[4]

Anna is the daughter of a Georgian film director Besarion Giorgobiani. In addition to playing the violin and writing poetry, Gurji received an award for scholastic achievement, bestowed upon her by the president of Georgia, Mikheil Saakashvili, in 2008.

Filmography

• Windsor Drive (2013)
• Freaky Deaky (2012)
• Innocence of Muslims (2012)
• The Dress You Wear (2010)
• Ape (2009)
• Rufus Rex (2009)
• Cinka Panna (2008)
• Signals (2007)
• If This Day Never Happened (2006)
• Town (1998)

References