- Starring
- Giorgi Ambroladze, Oliko Barbakadze, Giorgi Bochorishvili
- Writer
- Aleksandre Koberidze
- Director
- Aleksandre Koberidze
- Rating
- n/a
- Running Time
- 150 minutes
- Release Date
- n/a
Overall Score
Rating Summary
This will be one of many reviews during this year’s AFI Fest, to keep up with our latest coverage, click here.
In What Do We See When We Look at the Sky, a chance encounter on a street corner has Lisa and Giorgi fall in love at first sight, but an evil spell is cast on them. Will they ever meet again?
What Do We See When We Look at the Sky certainly has a stellar title and an interesting premise going for it. The title can mean a lot to someone depending on who they are. Are they a cynic seeing nothing but a blue sky and a sun or a black sky full of stars, or does a more optimistic, free-spirited person see something beyond that? After watching the film, it will become clear that this question is more of an emotional appeal than a scientific one.
Meanwhile, an overarching theme of the film is that of fate. Here, fate takes a malevolent form determined to keep lovers from uniting. Its length can add to the sense of a long distance between them and a certain forlornness in between the spaces, but one eventually starts to feel the vast length and wonder if it could’ve been cut down by half an hour.
The visual style is vivid and unique, adding an undercurrent to what this curse does to the people affected. For example, Giorgi can no longer play soccer but remains obsessed with the game. The palette adds a dreamy quality to the film that can take the viewer to a dream-like state after a while. This film could’ve used something more to ground it in a deeper reality, but what is there is admirable. The performances almost feel like they could’ve been transported from a French 1960s romantic drama, and the film similarly succeeds at balancing wistfulness with melancholy.
If What Do We See When We Look at the Sky occasionally overreaches for gravity it can’t always match, it maintains a hypnotic atmosphere and asks an emotional question almost anyone can relate to.
still courtesy of MUBI
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