A modern fairy tale of great beauty from Kutaisi Sakartvele "What do we see when we look at the sky?" from June 17. shown in Lithuanian cinemas, and exclusive advance premiere in Romuva will be held on June 16 Kartveli director Alexandre Koberidze won the Fipresci prize for this film at the Berlin Film Festival, which is awarded by film critics for the best film of the festival.
This is the story of love at first sight when Lisa and Giorgi meet by chance on the street in Kutaisi. Shocked by the strength of their feelings, they even forget to ask each other their names, only agreeing to meet the next day. They do not know that they are being watched: when they wake up, they will realize that they have changed beyond recognition. Will they be able to find each other again? "What do we see when we look at the sky?" is a film about love for man, dogs and football, spreading summer lightness and fairy-tale magic.
In an interview, director A. Koberidze reveals why we need magic and fairy tales.
A love story is born in your film, but we are watching until the last minute to see if it ever comes to fruition. How did you come up with the idea to tell the story of the curse against love?
When I was a child, I often wore a pebble on my arm to protect me from being watched. Almost nobody does that anymore, I wonder why. Are there no more evil eyes, or is it just that no one believes in them anymore? Of course, my story is not just about watching, but more generally about the forces - good and bad - that seem to have been locked away in our materialistic world, but still emerge from time to time. I am interested in respect for the unexplained and the place of such phenomena in everyday life. The attraction between two people for each other is such an inexplicable thing. How is the thread that binds two people together, and why does it hurt so much when this thread breaks? No one knows for sure.
Not only love, but also children, dogs and football occupy a large part of the film. Why did you decide to include these elements in the story?
I think that Kutaisi is a city that belongs to children. It's a bit like the scene in director Nanni Moretti's Dear Diary when the kids take over their town. As the rhythm of the film was dictated by what the city had to offer, it soon became clear that children would play a big role here - and anyway, is there anything more beautiful than filming children? Maybe only dogs! In dark times like ours, the devotion, affection, and dignity of dogs that we model is a real comfort to me. In my films, I always try to give space to dogs, thus expressing my gratitude to them. There are a few other things that bring me joy, and one of them is definitely football. When we were looking for filming locations, we went to a real stadium and entered the pitch through a tunnel, just like the players do. At that moment, I realized that this was my biggest dream: to run out onto the football field with a new shirt, stand in line with the team, beam with pride, listen to the Champions League song or the national anthem in preparation for the most important match. I know it won't happen, but I can get a little closer to that dream in the films I make…
The title of the film and the idea itself evoke a certain sense of magical realism, the supernatural in everyday life. Why did you choose this style?
There are two possibilities: either the characters in the film are actually wondering about the strange happenings, but the director of the film does not show it to the audience, or they wonder about it, but they themselves, as the characters, hide it. On the one hand, it's important for me to leave people alone in crucial, intimate moments. There are things we need to do and experience alone, and that includes fictional characters. On the other hand, the spectrum of human emotional reactions is completely overestimated, and the reactions we see in movies have nothing to do with reality. I don't necessarily think the reactions have to be realistic, but I'd like them not to follow the templates we're used to seeing in movies.
Movie trailer with Lithuanian subtitles: https://youtu.be/ELVLOGh7Gp8?t=9
