Sandro Akhmeteli

[2][3] Sandro Akhmeteli was born to the family of a priest in the mountainous village in the province of Kakheti (eastern Georgia, then part of Imperial Russia), whose landscapes and culture heavily influenced the future director’s aesthetic values.

In 1915, he produced his first manifesto, condemning the Georgian theater as one that had "to be destroyed, to be made softer, more temperamental, more fiery, emotional, stentorian, bold, heroic.

Restricted and somewhat conformist Marjanishvili found Akhmeteli’s autocratic rule and turbulent character too violent and left the Rustaveli Theater in 1926, leaving Akhemeteli in sole control of the company.

After his masterpiece, Lamara, a play be Grigol Robakidze, won a prize at the 1930 Moscow Drama Olympiad, Akhemetli and his troupe were invited to tour the United States, alarming the Soviet authorities.

Akhemeteli produced his last major work in 1933 based on Die Räuber by Schiller (the play is known in Georgia under the name "In Tyrannos") followed by the triumphant tour to Moscow.

He took refuge among his admirers in Moscow, but, in 1937, he was extradited to Tbilisi to be imprisoned with a number of his colleagues on trumped-up charges of espionage for the British and plots to murder Beria and Joseph Stalin.

[5][6] Protest participants were inspired by the fact that Akhmeteli scheduled that play and displayed its banner in front of Rustaveli Theater in defiance of the Soviet authorities and their plans to hold festivities in that location.