Tbilisi (AFP)

Far-right groups were demonstrating Friday in Georgia, burning a rainbow flag, against the premiere of an Oscar-nominated film highlighting the discrimination of the LGBT community in the Caucasus country.

"And then we'll dance" Levan Akin staged a love story between two men, dancers at the National Ballet of Georgia. Acclaimed abroad, the film provoked controversy in a conservative Georgian society and was denounced by the influential Georgian Orthodox Church as an "affront to the country's traditional values".

Hundreds of anti-LGBT activists gathered Friday night in front of the Amirani cinema in the capital, Tbilisi.

"Long live Georgia!", "Shame!" they chanted, while a large police force was deployed on the spot. Protesters also burned a rainbow flag, while an Orthodox priest recited a prayer.

The Interior Ministry has announced the arrest of eleven protesters for "disobedience to the police".

"Georgian folk dance is at the heart of our spiritual values, we will not challenge our traditions," said one of the protesters, Teona Gogava, a 35-year-old housewife interviewed by AFP.

Film executives, who posted a video on Facebook showing police inspecting the room's seats with dogs before the screening, said all ticket holders were allowed to enter.

Maka Kiladze, a 40-year-old choreographer in the room, said it was "abnormal" to face an "angry mob". "This film has aroused great interest in Georgia," he added.

- "Dark Forces" -

The director of the film, Levan Akin, a Swede of Georgian origin, said earlier that far-right groups and religious activists "intend to prevent people from attending" the film's premiere. which all available places have been sold.

"We are living in dark times and the coming demonstrations prove how vital it is to fight against these dark forces by any means," he added.

A former deputy of the ruling party, Sandro Bregadze, warned this week that the nationalist group he chairs, Georgian March, would oppose the premiere of the film, calling it "propaganda of sodomy."

Levan Vasadze, a businessman linked to anti-Western and far-right groups in Russia, said his supporters "will enter the cinemas of six cinemas in Tbilisi to put out the spotlight", promising to "repel the police if necessary ".

The Georgian Ministry of the Interior promised in a statement to ensure "the protection of the public and the order, as well as the freedom of expression". He warned that the police would "remove any illegal act immediately".

Homosexuality is a taboo subject in Georgia as in the whole Caucasus and a large part of the former USSR.

Critics of the ruling Georgian Dream have accused the government of tacit support for homophobic and nationalist groups in return for their support for elections and anti-opposition rallies.

© 2019 AFP