What Do We See When We Look at the Sky? – Ras vkhedavt, rodesac cas vukurebt? (2021)

Directed by: Aleksandre Koberidze | 150 minutes | drama | Actors: Giorgi Ambroladze, Oliko Barbakadze, Giorgi Bochorishvili, Irina Chelidze, Ani Karseladze, Vakhtang Panchulidze

‘What Do We See When We Look at the Sky?’ is a lot lighter than the lengthy title suggests. A chance meeting between Lisa and Giorgi leads to a date on the post-Soviet streets of the city of Kutaisi, seat of the Georgian parliament. But a curse puts a miraculous twist on this date. What follows is a stimulating picture parade for the viewer who is not averse to a touch of magical realism.

Georgian director Alexandre Koberidze’s fiction debut could just be a silent film. Sound is important, the accompanying music listens closely, furthermore this calm production is mainly based on an intriguing visual language. In addition, dialogues are sparse and an ironic voice-over intervenes to move the plot somewhat forward.

Koberidze likes to interrupt the story with everyday poetry: a playing dog or a football game in a back yard. The many cartoons, sometimes disguised as visual jokes, not only serve as entertainment in the background, but are an essential part of the foreground. There is essentially no difference between the two. The French director Jacques Tati and Wes Anderson would nod in agreement with Koberidze’s narrative style and imagery.

The ubiquitous voice-over of the film might just be slightly cocky: what are stories except fodder for fantasists? The vistas into the city center of Kutaisi and languid visual jokes are therefore the strongest parts of the film. In it you feel the love for the local environment and its inhabitants. You might want to spend a summer there, swaying with the summer breeze as you wander through the picturesque center along the river Rioni. In fact, this Georgian production is more of a fascinating city portrait than a sweet-voiced romance.

Do the characters in ‘What Do We See When We Look at the Sky?’ then not? Are they mere archetypes in a Georgian love fairy tale? Indeed, you don’t get to know the characters in the usual way: their thoughts, emotions and interactions remain almost entirely under lock and key. They are almost uniform in their solitude, as if in a great charade. The distance from the characters therefore somewhat hinders the expressiveness of the film.