Son of acclaimed Temur Babluani, Georgian-French filmmaker Géla Babluani blasted out of the gates when his feature debut 13 Tzameti traveled to the Venice Film Festival winning Luigi De Laurentiis Lion of the Future for Best First Feature in 2005 and the then making a rare splash at Sundance in 2006 winning the World Cinema Jury Prize (Dramatic) at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival. His films look at fate, chance, isolation and violence as a social system, Babluani is one of the rare filmmakers to remake their own film for English speaking auds (13 was launched in 2010). His other films 2006’s L’héritage (co-directed with his father) and 2017’s Money weren’t as widely acclaimed but this next project might put the filmmaker back on the map. Here is everything we know so far for … Géla Babluani‘s Young Stalin.
Written by Simon Sebag Montefiore, the biographical non-fiction book on which the film is based on was released back in 2007. A Georgian-British production, principal photography began in July of 2025 in Tbilisi, Georgia and Bucharest, Romania.
Co-written by Babluani and Simon Sebag Montefiore, this follows the little-known, stranger-than-fiction early life of Joseph Stalin – street fighter, bank robber and revolutionary – before he became the architect of Soviet tyranny.
Cosmo Jarvis is Joseph Stalin. Michael Socha, Nikita Kukushkin and Lidija Kordic are also onboard.
Kirill Serebrennikov’s usual cinematographer Vladislav Opeylants is onboard here. Producers include Rupert Lloyd, Independent Film Project’s Archil Gelovani, 20 Steps’ Vladimer Katcharava, and Film and Music Entertainment’s Sam Taylor. Giorgi Gordzamashvili is the production designer.
With filming having taken place over one year ago we could see this being prepped for a prestige showcase – a acquisitions title at the 2027 Berlinale could be in the cards. Upgrade Film Sales is handling the film.
