Chechen Documentary ‘Imago’ Debuts Clip Ahead of Cannes Premiere

An exclusive clip of Chechen documentary “Imago,” directed by Déni Oumar Pitsaev, is being debuted by Variety. The film, which is sold worldwide by Rediance and will be released by New Story in France, has its world premiere in Critics’ Week at the Cannes Film Festival.

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.

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.