What we see when we see this film, to paraphrase its title, will evoke very different reactions.

Enthusiasm and skepticism, delight and annoyance.

Adjectives like “poetic” and “pretentious” are to be expected, and “masterly” will also appear to some and like post-socialist kitsch to others.

Peter Korte

Editor in the feuilleton of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sunday newspaper in Berlin.

  • Follow I follow

An agreement is not in sight, there is nothing to objectify and nobody needs to be convinced.

But one could describe as soberly as possible what can actually be seen on the screen for two and a half hours, how it is told, whether this narrative achieves what it is aiming for.

And you could also ask a few questions.

The film is called "What do we see when we look at the sky?" It is director Aleksandre Koberidze's thesis at the Berlin film school dffb.

Not a typical thesis.

Koberidze, born in Tbilisi in 1984, has already directed a feature film, Let Summer Never Come Again (2017), which has screened at a number of festivals

"What do we see when we look up at the sky?" was also shown in 2021 in the competition of the digital Berlinale.

Koberidze has said he likes Nanni Moretti and Béla Tarr, the inaccessible Hungarians;

he is enthusiastic about football and silent films - some of which can be seen on the screen.

The film begins at a school gate in Kutaisi, a city in Georgia that sits on a river.

Children come and go, it's loud, nothing really happens.

Then it's quiet, the camera shows a pair of women's feet and a pair of men's feet, a book falls to the ground, hands grab it.

Both diverge and turn back.

The young woman who works in a pharmacy and the man who plays soccer have been hit hard.

Then a narrator cuts in from the off when the two have made an appointment.

At a nocturnal intersection, a seedling, a broken gutter, and a surveillance camera speak.

They warn of the curse that lies over this love.

What the wind says is drowned out: that they will not recognize each other because their appearance will change.

And that they will lose their most important talents: medical knowledge and football skills.

There are also a few lonely piano runs, the music was composed by Koberidze's brother Giorgi.

We are asked to close our eyes and only open them again after a beep - even if you don't do that, there are suddenly two new Lisa and Giorgi actors.

The fairy tale setting with an omniscient narrator is established.

It comes as prophesied.

In the romantic evening atmosphere in the beer garden by the river, everyone sits alone at a table in the midst of exuberant guests, and they don't recognize each other.

Then they both get a job in this beer garden.

So they see each other every day and spend the time waiting for each other without knowing about each other.

Somewhat surprisingly, a film team comes into play looking for suitable young people for a film about six couples in love.

It will eventually cast Lisa and Giorgi as well.

Then there's the World Cup, which worries Argentina fan Giorgi, who his coach sent away because he no longer recognizes him

Even the street dogs, one of whom is called Vardy, go to public football shows but can't agree on a common place.

A friend of Lisa's sends her to a woman at music college who is said to be able to break the curse.

During the casting for the film, Lisa and Giorgi talk briefly to each other for the first time.

They get to know each other without recognizing each other, they drive to the country, to a pastoral idyll, where cakes are lovingly made, where the sun shines and everyone is friendly.

The film is being shot, and Giorgi even takes Lisa home afterwards, even though the World Cup final is on and Argentina is beating someone 3-1.

They say goodbye to each other politely.