Chechen Documentary ‘Imago' Debuts Clip Ahead of Cannes Premiere, Rediance Handles Sales (EXCLUSIVE)
Oumar Pitsaev, an exiled Chechen filmmaker, returns to Pankissi, a Georgian valley at the foot of the Caucasus, inhabited by descendants of his Chechen clan. When he inherits a small patch of land in the valley, he sees a chance to finally build the house in the trees that he's dreamed of since he was a boy.
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But nothing in the rugged Caucasus is ever simple. Returning to a village just across the Chechen border where he was born – a place he barely knows – he stirs up old feuds, buried family dramas, and above all, the question everyone keeps asking: when, and with whom, is he finally going to get married?
In a statement, the director said: 'When my cousin invited me to spend a summer in Pankissi, I knew I would have to confront everything I had spent years running from: the pressure of tradition, the demands of family, the weight of religion, and the silence around identity.
'This film is both a return and a reckoning — with my Chechen roots, my fractured family, and my own internal exiles. I navigate the tension between belonging and freedom, between the home I fled and the one I might one day build.
' 'Imago' is a story of metamorphosis—of what it means to grow, to forgive, and to imagine a future that honors the past without being bound by it.'
The film is produced by Triptyque Films in France and co-produced by Need Productions in Belgium, Arte Cinema and RTBF. It has been supported by the Sundance Institute, ASR and Eurimages, and was part of a number of pitching forums, notably Hot Docs, Toronto, Sheffield and Locarno.
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