The Loneliest Planet (2011)

The Loneliest Planet is a 2011 thriller film written and directed by Julia Loktev, starring Gael Garcia Bernal, Hani Furstenberg, and first-time actor Bidzina Gujabidze. The plot centers around a local guide who takes a young couple through a twisted backpacking trip across the Georgian wilderness.

The film had its international premiere at the 2011 Locarno International Film Festival followed by its North American premiere at the 2011 Toronto International Film Festival. It then went on to be featured during the New York Film Festival, the BFI London Film Festival, and the 2011 AFI Fest in Los Angeles, where it won the Grand Jury Prize. On March 24, 2012, The Loneliest Planet was awarded the top prize of "Lady Harimaguada de Oro" (The Golden Lady) at the Las Palmas de Gran Canaria International Film Festival, where actress Hani Furstenberg also won for Best Actress. On April 14, 2012 the film also won the Golden Tulip International Competition award at the 31st International Istanbul Film Festival.

On October 11, 2011, it was announced that Sundance Selects, a division of IFC Films, had acquired North American distribution rights. The film's theatrical release in the United States is scheduled to be October 26, 2012.

Storyline: Alex (Gael Garcia Bernal) and Nica (Hani Furstenberg) are young, in love and engaged to be married. The summer before their wedding, they are backpacking in the Caucasus Mountains in Georgia. The couple hire a local guide to lead them on a camping trek, and the three set off into a stunning wilderness, a landscape that is both overwhelmingly open and frighteningly closed. Walking for hours, they trade anecdotes, play games to pass the time of moving through space. And then, a momentary misstep, a gesture that takes only two or three seconds, a gesture that's over almost as soon as it begins. But once it is done, it can't be undone. Once it is done, it threatens to undo everything the couple believed about each other and about themselves.