Imago

Filmstill Imago

Imago

Imago
Déni Oumar Pitsaev
Panorama: Central and Eastern Europe 2025
Documentary Film
France,
Belgium
2025
109 minutes
Chechen,
Russian,
Georgian
Subtitles: 
English

A piece of land awaits Déni Oumar Pitsaev in the Pankisi Gorge, a Chechen enclave in the Georgian part of the Caucasus. His mother bought it for him, hoping to bring her son, who was socialised in Western Europe, back to his Chechen roots. When he arrives, he realises that the gift comes with strings attached: Relatives and friends from the neighbourhood constantly ask when the 40-year-old Déni with his receding hair intends to start a family. When he counters with his own vision – building a treehouse for adults ten metres from the ground, a childhood dream – he triggers complex debates about the relationship between the individual and society and what historical conditions it is subject to: The region is deeply scarred by the effects of the Chechen War, the wounds extending even to his estranged relationship with his father. In all this, Pitsaev’s manner of confrontation is always extremely delicate, never turning into an attack. With expert curiosity, he approaches a world that is both completely alien and home to him.

Felix Mende

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Déni Oumar Pitsaev
Cinematographer
Sylvain Verdet, Joachim Philippe
Editor
Laurent Sénéchal, Dounia Sichov
Producer
Alexandra Mélot
Co-Producer
Anne-Laure Guégan, Géraldine Sprimont
Sound
Marie Paulus, André Rigaut, Joseph Squire
Sound Design
Marie Paulus, André Rigaut, Joseph Squire, Hélène Clerc-Denizot, Emmanuel De Boissieu
World Sales
Jing Xu
Nominated for: MDR Film Prize