There is a certain clunky patchiness to Koberidze’s ambitious digressions, as if he was too besotted with his intuitions—some arguably quite striking—to be able to distil them into something truly exhilarating. The same apparent lack of focus seems to extend to the aesthetics of the film, making it look at times like the work of a cinephile revealing too much of his influences. Koberidze mentioned Russian director Aleksandre Rekhviashvili—regrettably unknown to me—as one, while I couldn’t help discerning traits of Paolo Sorrentino’s lyricism and Yorgos Lanthimos’ absurdist sense of humour.
And yet, as I find myself more and more bewildered by the discreet observations of the human and beastly creatures of the ancient city of Kutaisi, I realise that it is right because of its naivety that What do we see seduces.
In and out of urban folktales and personal idiosyncrasies, I slowly get what Koberidze said in an interview1, finding it thoroughly inspiring. ‘For me, to make a film is to film the things that interest me, not necessarily just a story. I really like to go out sometimes and make pictures and watch what’s going on. I think there are enough fairy tales and secrets in the things you can see everywhere.’ Which kind of echoes a brilliant quote from Russian animator Yuri Norstein, also mentioned by Koberidze. ‘The simpler the story, the more time you have for the film.’
1.Interview: Alexandre Koberidze, Jessica Kiang (Film Comment, 12 October 2021).
