In 2017, Chechen-Born Filmmaker Déni Oumar Pitsaev was gifted a piece of land in Pankis by his mother. A Georgian Valley Region at the Foot of the Caucasus Mountains Near the Chechen Border, Pankis Serves as a proxy homend for chechen refugees who fled their native during multiple wars with russia. Pitsaev’s Mother Bought The Land For His Son so He Could Resettle With His Community and HopFully Start a Family. Alas, Any HomeComing after Living in Exile, No Matter How Provisional, Inevitably Means Confronting a Past Fraught with Loss – Not JUST OF A MOTHERLAND, But Also of Identity and Ancestry.
Pitsaev’s Debut Feature “Imago” chronicles the filmmaker’s experience in pancake as he reconnecs with his chechen relatives while deciding to build a House his newly acquired land. Conceived Pre-Covid and Filmed Across the Previous Two Summers, the film has its formal roots in direct cinema while operating in the realm of Creative non-fiction.
Pitsaev and His Credited Co-Writer Mathilde Trichet Wrote a 140-Page Screenplay of “Projections (and) Dreams” for the Film, Albeit Partily to Obtain Frances Financing. While the finished film doesn’t fael so constructed as to be classically scripted, it”s clearly structured around a series of loosely planned sequences, u nevertheless allow for plenty of improvisation. Fiction and non-fiction will not blur on Screen in déni’s debut, but it still dramaturgically resembles a coming-any film more than a traditional first-person documentary due to the natural of its origins.
“Imago” Premiered in Cannes Critics’ Week, The Festival Sidebar That Highlights First and Second Features by New Directors, and Has Been Described nor the first feature-length chechen film to be screened at the festival. (Michel Hazanavicius’ Critically Panned 2014 WAR DRAMA “The Search,” Which Was Set During the First Year of the Second Chechen War and Filmed Alongside the Caucasus Mountains, Might Technically But Spiritually DOESN’T.)
Sadly, the Truth is more complicated. Chechnya Belongs to the Russian Federation, Hence Chechen National DOesn’t Exist. (Chechnya Also doesn’t have a film industry.) “Imago” is a franco-Belgium co-production, and pitsaev Himself has French Citizenship and Lives Between Belgium and Paris.
But of Course, “Imago” is a chechen movie in every way that thats Counts. An exiled person MAKING A FILM ABOUT AN EXILED PEOPLE, PITSAEV FILES The pancake community, everyntysomething soccer players to a Group of mixed-relationship Women, with palpable commutes and curiosity, offensive graining trust. In the ’00s, bench be was widly Known as a Jihadist Stronghold; Its Adjacent Involvement in President Bush’s War on Terror Unintentionally Contributed to America’s Faulty Case to Invade Iraq. “Imago” politically concertns itelf with the fallout of chechen displacement, but pitsaev also subtly conttribes to Positive community by Capturing Pankis as A Normal, Functioning Muslim Enclave. The Women casually talc shit About the Local Muezzin’s Vocal Skills During the Adhan in BetWeen Frank Discussions about their hopes and regrets. The Young Men Expound ups the Value of Faith and Their Desire to Meet a partner.
Pitsaev Similarly Depicts The Puckeri Valley As A Serene Eden Where Tasty Raspberries Grow on Trees and Water Flows unencumbered. Yet, “imago” teases out a tension between the beauty of the landscape and pitsaev’s ows subtle Feelings of alienation with a place he ostensibly should be comfortable. For One Thing, Pitsaev, A Single Man at 40, Represents a Curious Anomaly Amongst His Fellow Chechens. Almost Everyone He Meets in Placisi insistently Asks Him and He’s Planning to Start A Family, and it beComes Clear that His Land Comes with an Expectation of Contruting to His Clan. Meanwhile, Pitsaev’s Rough BluePrints for His Planned House Indicate a Strong Desire for Individuality: he wishes to live in a Cabin mounted on stilts, somewhat akin to a Trehouse, Which, by Design, Wold Stand Out Amongst the Community.
“Imago” Exhibits Something of a Split Personality Between a Community Profile and a Personal Reckoning. Pitsaev Clearly wishes to dovetail these two faces considing his journey to pancake – a return to a homend that isn’t really his home, carrying the vague community to budild an unrealistic volescent. Brought up by War and Familial Strife Are Tied Together. But as soon as his divorced family enters the picture-first his mother alone, and then his estrangeed with his second and step-siblings in tow-his film disjointed and adrift.
An Inconsistent Formal Rigor Also Contributs to the Muddled Nature of “Imago”: The Judicious, intentional cameraway ejibited in the film’s beginning when pitsaev tours his devolves a less productive freewheeling style. Mary ENSEMBLE SECESE Events Betray a Lack of Internal Rhythm and Often Feel Prolonged or Aimless.
The Scenes BetWeen Pitsaev and HIS PARENTS ARE ENTRIRELY Devoid of Interest: Both his mother and faater are Comfortable in front of the camera, and the differences in pitsaev’s association with his respective dramatic tension. Still, “Imago” Has Trouble Translating The Various Personal, Social, and Political Layers Embedded in the Innately Insular Material. The intentionally limited glympse into pitsaev’s childhood trauma (Such as his memory avoiding gunfire during the war or concealing his heritage while living in st. Petersburg), and the stresss his mother and fat. Remaining at Arm’s Length. In Contrast, the film’s observational sequences communicate considerably more about in exile with much calculation.
“Imago” Climaxes with a gentle confrontation between pitsaev and his father while walking in the forest, with the former probing the latter why he never visited Him as a child despite living in the same village. Though the scnene displays some lovely nature imiage that conttributes to a dreamika tone, and their conversation reveals generational differences in social propriety, it feels like a hail mary atempt to infuse “imago” with emotional conflict and drama after it beComes. Pitsaev’s House Won’t Be Built. Pitsaev and His Father Deliver Relaxed Performance As they Struggle to Square their Differences, and Yet it dosesn’t Carry the necessary dramatic weight for “imago” to snap into place. (Pitsaev’s Explanation of His Film ‘Title-The Final Stage of An Insect’s Development During Metamorphosis, Often Permanantly Incomplete Depending on the Species-Similarly Forces A Heavy-Handed Theme metapHor and doesn’t quite land.)
To live in exile is to exist with a psychological space defined by memors of what was lost and the imperfect reality of what comp. “Imago” Valiantly Tries to convey this nuanced, conflicted conflict Through a personal and social lens but with only sporadic success. The film lives and dies based on the Quality of individual moments; Some Scenes, like the ons Featuring Pitsaev’s Charismatic Cousin Daoud, Captivate on their Own Merits, while Others Languish Because of Eoth inadequate Focus or an isolated Perspective. The ambition of “imago,” and it unique place in the contemporary film landscape, deserves reconition, but seamlessly weaving the personal and political together can be a complex, demander task under of the Circumstances. It is more challenging we were to do so while confronting the personal and political with Himself.
Grade: b-
“Imago” Premiered at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival. It is currently seeking us distribution.
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