Panopticon

Original Title: Panoptikon

Directed by: George Sikharulidze

Country: Georgia

Length: 93 min.

Year: 2024

Premiere: Karlovy Vary Film Festival 2024

Synopsis: Sandro faces solitude and seeks a new direction after hus father abandons him to become a monk.

RATING: 2.5/5

 

REVIEW

Coming of age films, debut films. Cinema has plenty of such examples, plenty of examples with faults and limitations. Panopticon by George Sikharulidze is ridden by a lot of the issues that come with approaching a genre that is extremely saturated at this point in contemporary cinema - it has few limited glimpses of audacity, however, which should be taken in account.

A teenager that grows up with an absent father and an even more absent mother, Sandro is a character that seems hollow, looking for anything to fill the void. Looking, gazing, observing - an action that he undertakes often, that lead to him to actions and choices, and to be observed himself. It is not just voyeurism that Sikharulidze insists on, but a form of interaction that goes on both sides. There is one particular scene that estabilishes well this relation, when Sandru is at a hair salon and has his hair washed, with a piercing gaze through the screen towards the viewer - or God, since he is looking upwards. Sadly, rarely Panopticon employs such powerful imagery to convey the theme of observing outside this scene. 

The character of the father, Malkhaz Abuladze, has a magnetic appearance wherever he is on screen, and his brief but strong performance is definitely one of the best aspects of the film. With the intensity of his gaze, Abuladze is one of the most lively characters on screen.

Thus lies the main issue of the film: the themes are hidden, concealed to an extent that when, at the conclusive scene, a monologue explicits the concept that is introduced in the title, it feels too distant from what the film was about until that point, and so many storyline points seem detached from the main subject.

It is very clear that George Sikharulidze has a deep philosophical preparation, displayed mainly in that final monologue, in the occasional hints, the cultural references to music and cinema that never feel excessive, but Panopticon does not sufficiently display this background to impress.