Pankissi Valley, Georgia, June 2010
In the Georgian Pankissi valley, not far from the Russian border, the Kistes form a small community whose social structure was shaken from the 1990s. From the independence of Georgia until the last conflicts in the North Caucasus, these relatives parents of the Chechens, were neglected for a long time by the government in Tbilisi, only to be seriously exposed to the international game taking place in the region. Once the unrest has dissipated, this peaceful Muslim community expresses its attachment to Chechnya without reservation and forcefully. Long associated in the Georgian media with a lawless zone where organized crime and drug trafficking flourish, Pankissi recently made headlines because a young native became one of the commanders of the Islamic State in Syria. The authorities and many external observers now only perceive the small valley from the angle of terrorism and radicalization. Far from the spotlight of current events, this series, produced in the 2010s, focuses on the survival of rituals linked to the use of horses in Kist culture.