Nuka Sakdari

High above a valley in the province of Artvin, unreachable by road, stands Nuka Sakdari: a ninth-century Georgian basilica of the Tao-Klarjeti school, its stone roof opened to the sky, its walls in an active process of deterioration. The double-nave plan is a rarity among Georgian churches, and the siting — on a shelf of rock reachable only on foot — is among the most dramatic of any surviving building of its school. It belongs to the same constellation as Öşkvank, İşhan and Barhal, but unlike them it has never been restored, has never been the object of a state programme, and is scarcely documented at all.

The proposal inverts the usual order: rather than making a film about a restoration, it uses films to cause one. A trailer opens the institutional doors; an expedition then produces the first complete architectural record in the monument's history; the film of that expedition pays for the emergency stabilisation; and the whole arc becomes a final feature. Each phase is scoped so that it is paid for by the phase before it.

Nuka Sakdari is a registered cultural asset of the Turkish state. Any physical intervention is designed, approved and executed under the authority of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism and its regional conservation council. The team funds, documents, advocates and films. It does not touch the stones.