Almost all the Georgian residents of Abkhazia were forced to flee during the war in the 1990s. How Besso managed to stay remains a mystery. He himself doesn't know what happened, maybe because of amnesia, or because the memories are just too painful to recall.

His new life began two years after the war ended, when Alla was working at Sokhumi market.

"I was standing next to our stall in the market when a boy of seven or eight came up to me and threw his arms around me,” she recalls. “I asked him who he was and told him to go away, but he said 'I am your son', he took my hand and wouldn't let go. He was shouting that he didn't want me to call the police and telling me that he'd been looking for me for a long time. He begged us to take him home."

From the day Besso arrived it was like he had always lived there. He immediately became one of the family, but traces of trauma remained. When Alla attempted to speak to Besso in Georgian-his mother tongue-he became frightened and begged her to stop.

Then one day, Besso suddenly realised that Alla was not his real mother.

"We were on our way to visit some relatives when suddenly he told me 'you know I was looking at you and ‘I have made a mistake, you are not my mother!' and he hit me across the face. I hugged him and promised him I'd help him find his real mother," Alla said.

Alla began her search in Moscow, with appeals being made as far a field as Greece and Israel. The case was even featured on a popular Russian TV show.

Through an acquaintance from Sokhumi market, the trail led to the Georgian capital Tbilisi. Finally, Alla thought she had tracked down Besso's biological parents.

Zaira has a son who resembles Besso, and is about his age. While her family was attempting to flee from Sokhumi during the last days of the war, he went missing.

"The bombing had started, I was in the street with my kids. The driver of a nearby car said ‘give me your children so I can take them to safety’. I gave him my baby girl fist and then my son, I almost threw them to him," Zaira said.

Besso lived with his new family in Tbilisi for two years. Although he felt welcomed there, his heart remained with his adoptive mother in Sokhumi.

"Your mother is not the woman who gave birth to you, she is the woman who brings you up,” Besso said. “I feel most comfortable here, I have my adopted mother here, she loves me and I love her even more. But also I respect and love my other parents."

Although Zaira treated Besso as if he was her long lost son, doubts remained.

"I didn't tell him that I had doubts,” Zaira explained. “I said 'Besso, relatives want to make sure that I really am your mother. We need to do a blood test to be 100 percent sure.' He was worried that I would reject him if the tests were negative, but I said 'Besso, god sent you to me, and you can live with me even if you are not my biological son. But I will keep looking for my child."

Blood tests have now confirmed that Zaira is not Besso's mother, but the pair are still close, and Besso now has loved ones on both sides of the divide in the Georgian Abkhazian conflict.

"I talk to people in both Georgia and Abkhazia, everybody has their own opinion, but I have the impression that ordinary people in Georgia want to get back to Abkhazia without war,” Besso believes. “People want to come home in a peaceful way. I'm not a politician, but my impression is that most sides need to think in a positive way."

Besso will continue to search for his biological mother, and Zaira will never stop looking for her missing son. And though his two families are on opposing sides in the conflict, they are united by their love for him.