Imago

With his neatly trimmed beard and muscular body, Daoud, a devout Salafist, embodies the ideal of the Chechen patriarch. The opposite of his cousin, Déni Oumar Pitsaev (Looking for Déni, VdR 2017), whom he has invited to reconnect with his roots. Slender, and with a tentative gentleness, he wanders through the Georgian Pankisi Valley neighbouring his native Chechnya. The war of the 1990s scattered the clan and shattered the family unit. His father still lives in Russia, where he has remarried; Déni, meanwhile, fled the bombs to seek refuge in Europe with his mother. Now he is back, filmmaker and owner of a small plot of land bestowed by his mother, and bearer of a childhood dream: to build a lightweight, stylised cabin there, “floating” above the ground – a metaphor for Pitsaev’s unique position within this family, which he observes with perplexity despite its warm and curious welcome. Drawing inspiration from the naturalistic image of the metamorphoses by which insects transition to adulthood, Imago weaves a cinematic cocoon that is playful, sensory and generous, using the intertwined threads of the dual search for belonging and lineage. 

Emmanuel Chicon

Imago, 2025
Looking for Deni, 2018