A translation bureau for Mestia - TARGMANEBI's service for a municipality where the landscape itself is an economic resource and therefore a matter for paperwork. A foreign film studio, advertising agency or photographer who needs the towers of Ushguli in shot first obtains permits - from cultural heritage, from the protected areas agency, from the municipality - then signs contracts with location owners, the local crew, horse owners and hotels, and finally formalises the temporary import of equipment. Every one of those steps is a bilingual document, and in film the deadline always expired yesterday.
Mestia's second flow is investment: hotels and cottages that foreigners build or buy in a zone where construction is regulated by heritage protection rules - and the investor has to understand those rules, from Georgian, before signing. The third is the seasons: Tetnuldi and Hatsvali in winter, the trails in summer, the hotels, guides and instructors. The fourth is Svan families whose children are in Europe. Mestia is three hours from Zugdidi and eight from Tbilisi; the courier comes on an agreed day, in winter depending on the weather, and anyone flying to Tbilisi from Mestia airport collects at the office.
A camera in Svaneti - from the permit to taking the equipment out
Shooting a foreign production in Mestia requires three layers of documents, each serving a different authority or party:
Permits
- Application to film at cultural heritage monuments, in Georgian
- Permits from the protected areas agency and the municipality
- Drone flight permit and the aviation authority's requirements
- Shooting plan, synopsis and location list in Georgian
- Permit conditions and restrictions in English for the crew
Contracts
- Bilingual location agreement with the owner of a tower, house or yard
- Contracts with the local crew, guides, drivers and horse owners
- Hotel and catering contracts for accommodating the crew
- Image rights releases for local participants, in Georgian
- Production agreement with the Georgian partner company
Equipment and insurance
- Equipment list for temporary import, for customs
- Production insurance conditions in Georgian for the location owner
- Mountain safety plan for the Georgian crew
- Invoices and acts from local suppliers for the production's accounts
- Accident report and insurance claim if someone is injured on the shoot
The location agreement is the most sensitive document in Mestia: a Svan tower or house is usually family property, and the owner has to understand exactly what they are permitting - the filming, any alterations, the use of the images, for how long and for what payment. So we prepare location agreements bilingually with a legal translator, and explain the Georgian version to the owner separately before signature. The image rights release for local participants - as in ethnographic expeditions - has to be written in Georgian, in plain language.
A hotel in the UNESCO zone - an investor's documents
Ushguli and Mestia's historic quarters are protected zones where construction, reconstruction and even facades are governed by heritage protection rules - and a foreign investor often discovers those rules after buying the land. For the investor we translate the registry extract and the zone regime documents into their language before signature, the construction permit conditions and heritage council rulings, sale contracts and powers of attorney in both directions, the construction contract with a local company bilingually, the architectural project and facade approval documents, and residence and company registration papers into Georgian. An investor's file stays with one manager and one terminology base for years - from the registry to the hotel opening.
Tetnuldi, Hatsvali, Ushba - the season's documents
In winter Mestia's resorts and heli-ski operators receive foreign guests and instructors; in summer climbers go up Ushba and Tetnuldi and hikers walk from Mestia to Ushguli. The documents of that flow are familiar: platform texts for the hotels, bilingual contracts between ski schools and foreign instructors, heli-ski safety and liability forms, guides' certificates, and climbers' insurance and rescue packages if something happens. Svan place names are written in the transliteration used in alpine literature - Ushba and Tetnuldi are known worldwide in one spelling.
Svan families
Beyond the shoots and the investment, families in Mestia's villages need what Lower Svaneti needs: a child in Europe, a grandmother in a tower house, papers for an embassy, a university or the pension agency, a power of attorney from a child abroad about the family house. Svan surnames - Japaridze, Khergiani, Chartolani, Nizharadze - are spelled in several Latin ways across passports, and a family's papers are handled from one table; the owner named in a location agreement and their child's power of attorney have to be the same person.
Languages in orders from Mestia
Because of the productions and the investors, English is the unconditional working language in Mestia; European productions and instructors add German, French and Italian, guests add Polish, Czech and Ukrainian, investors Arabic and Chinese. Russian is the language of older papers and part of the tourism, Greek and Spanish of family documents; Turkish and Dutch are tied to individual projects.
The process for a production and an investor
The plan and the deadline
The shooting plan, the location list and the draft contracts as files, by email to info@targmanebi.ge, with the crew's arrival date; for an investor, the registry extract and the zone documents before signature.
Authority, owner or customs
Who the document is for decides the language, the certification and the tone: official for an authority, comprehensible for an owner, exact for customs.
Legal translator, bilingual format
Location and construction contracts are prepared bilingually by a legal translator, permit applications by an official documents translator, the equipment list by a technical one; Svan place names and surnames are checked from one table.
File to the crew, paper in Mestia, interpreter on location
You receive the file at once; certified paper comes by courier to Mestia or the crew collects it at the Tbilisi office from the airport; the interpreter is in Mestia for the shooting period.
Price and turnaround
An order from Mestia is at Tbilisi prices; the courier beyond the pass is a separate, stated item, depends on the weather in winter, and is paid once for a production's or an investor's package. A permit application the same day, a bilingual location agreement in two days, a production's full package before the crew arrives, an investor's file in stages from a terminology base; season material before the season, a family certificate in two to three days. A shoot interpreter has a daily rate, fixed for the whole schedule before the crew arrives. A production's synopsis and an investor's business plan are confidential - in Mestia's small market that matters particularly. A production signs its contract with the sole trader Mariam Zumadze (ID 30601010853) - the bureau's founder is a lawyer and checks the legal terminology of locations, permits and investment herself; a confirmed inaccuracy is corrected free of charge.
A foreign production planning to shoot in Ushguli and needing permits, location agreements and an equipment list? Building a hotel in the UNESCO zone and wanting the zone rules before you sign? Send us the plan and the deadline - the package will be ready before the crew arrives and the interpreter will meet you on location.
Call: 501 113 200Frequently asked questions - translation in Mestia
A German advertising production is coming to Ushguli for two weeks. Which permits and contracts get translated?
Permit applications to cultural heritage, the protected areas agency and the municipality in Georgian, the drone permit, bilingual location agreements with the owners of towers and houses, contracts with the local crew, and the equipment list for customs. We prepare the package before arrival, and the interpreter is in Mestia for both weeks.
They want to film in the yard of my tower and have given me an English contract. What do you advise?
A bilingual version before you sign - Georgian and English in parallel columns - so that you know exactly what you are permitting, for how long, for what payment, and whether the image of the tower may still be used in advertising years later. We set that clause out separately; it is ready in one to two days.
I am a foreign investor, I have bought a house in Mestia's historic quarter and want to reconstruct it. What are the restrictions?
That is set by the heritage protection authority and the municipality - we translate the zone regime documents, the permit conditions and the council's rulings into your language so that you know before the design stage what is and is not allowed. The architect's project and the construction contract we prepare bilingually.
I am a heli-ski operator and my liability form is in English. Is a Georgian version essential?
Yes - in Georgia a dispute turns on the Georgian text, and it is the bilingual format that gives the English legal force. We prepare the form in legal wording with a field for the guest's signature, and the avalanche risk briefing separately, in short imperative sentences.
A climber was injured on Ushba and the insurer is asking for documents. How long?
The rescuers' report, the helicopter or evacuation invoice, the clinic's discharge sheet and the list of costs in the insurer's language - without a queue, in one to two days, as files, while the climber is still in the country. The clinical part is written by a translator experienced in medical terminology.
In winter the road from Zugdidi to Mestia is difficult. Will the courier come?
The weather decides the courier's day; if the road is closed we hold the original in Zugdidi or hand it over at the office to someone flying to Tbilisi from Mestia airport. The file does not wait for the pass, and for a production or an authority that is often enough.
Translation bureau in the other cities of Samegrelo-Zemo Svaneti
Mestia is Upper Svaneti and Lentekhi is Lower; Zugdidi, Poti, Senaki, Abasha, Martvili, Khobi, Tsalenjikha, Jvari and Chkhorotsku are the Samegrelo lowland, each with its own accent. Choose your city.