Georgian filmmaker Tato Kotetishvili , whose feature directorial debut, “Holy Electricity,” claimed the Golden Leopard in the Concorso Cineasti del Presente section at the recently concluded Locarno Film Festival , is getting ready for his next film, a documentary-fiction hybrid that follows a family attempting to enter the U.S. illegally from across the Mexican border.

The director has also released a trailer for his award-winning debut, which is playing in competition this week at the Sarajevo Film Festival . Variety has secured exclusive access to the trailer, which we are sharing below.

The untitled project from the cinematographer-turned-director traces the odyssey of a Georgian family trying to make it to America via an arduous, three-week journey across Latin America. The family’s first trip overseas, it will be seen through the eyes of a child “who is not really concerned with the problems of the past or the anxieties of the future,” said Kotetishvili.

The film, which reunites the director with producer Tekla Machavariani of Tbilisi-based Nushi Film, is set to receive a boost following the Georgian's award-winning achievement at Locarno. Directed and shot by Kotetishvili, who co-wrote the screenplay with Irine Jordania and Nutsa Tsikaridze, “Holy Electricity” captivated audiences with a series of sold-out screenings at the prestigious Swiss festival. The film is produced by Kotetishvili and Machavariani and co-produced by Ineke Smits, Ineke Kanters, Lisette Kelder, Guka Rcheulishvili and Marisha Urushadze for GoGoFilm, The Film Kitchen and Arrebato Films.

Here’s an exclusive look at the trailer:

“Holy Electricity” follows a pair of unlucky cousins who chance upon a suitcase filled with rusty crosses in a junkyard and decide to transform them into neon crucifixes, selling them door-to-door to the unsuspecting faithful of Tbilisi. A free-flowing, episodic narrative whose artfully composed frames beautifully capture the humor and poignancy of everyday life, the film is as much about the cousins' quest to settle a gambling debt as it is a portrait and tribute to the people of the Georgian capital.

Speaking with Variety from Tbilisi during a brief layover between Locarno and Sarajevo, Kotetishvili stated that the film heavily draws inspiration from his own itinerant life and career, which frequently finds him venturing to the outskirts of his hometown. “It’s deeply connected. Wherever I go, I’m captivated by places, people,” he said. “Every time I’m searching for characters and locations. Sometimes, the locations themselves provide me with the opportunity [to film]. I follow my heart, my intuition.”

Improvised with a cast of mostly non-professional actors, “Holy Electricity” demonstrates Kotetishvili’s talent for finding unique performers, a hallmark of his short films. The director explained that working with non-professionals gives him the chance to cast individuals who embody their roles so deeply “that they wouldn’t have to act, but could simply be themselves in front of the camera.”

Co-stars Nikolo Ghviniashvili (Bart) and Nika Gongadze (Gonga) came to the director as if by fate. Kotetishvili met Ghviniashvili while working as a cinematographer on a short documentary about Tbilisi’s LGBTQ community and immediately “recognized his talent”; the director cast him in the role of Bart, a trans man and junk dealer who spends his nights sleeping in a worn-out car and his days hustling on the streets of Tbilisi, wanting to get ahead and out of debt.

Gongadze, meanwhile, made a striking impression in a separate documentary being edited by the director’s friend. A tall, lanky teenager who studied clarinet in a music conservatory by day and enjoyed punk rock clubs by night, he instantly struck Kotetishvili as someone who “could bring a lot to the movie.” As Gonga, who loses his father at the film’s start, the first-time actor takes a winding path through “Holy Electricity” with his thoughts on life’s mysteries and his search for fleeting love.

The two actors’ contrasting physical presence on screen developed into a natural chemistry that gives “Holy Electricity” its considerable charm. The same can be said for the eccentric cast of Tbilisi natives who Kotetishvili described as “not just background…[but] an essential part of the film.”

Filmed, in many cases, in their actual homes, the inhabitants reveal a city deeply rooted not just in the extreme religiosity embodied in its ubiquitous neon crosses — a faith on which Bart and Gonga are eager to capitalize — but in the hopes, disagreements and family ties of individuals who, like Kotetishvili, follow their own path.

The director now hopes to become the fourth Georgian filmmaker to win the top prize in Sarajevo, following last year’s best feature winner , Elene Naveriani’s “ Blackbird Blackbird Blackberry .”

“The link between Sarajevo and Georgian cinema lies in the people and their shared history of hardship and self-discovery,” Kotetishvili remarked.

The Sarajevo Film Festival runs Aug. 16 – 23.