Unlocking the World Within a "Dry Leaf": A Review of Alexandre Koberidze’s Latest Release

In his 2021 breakout, "What Do We See When We Look at the Sky?", Alexandre Koberidze invites us to temporarily close our eyes. His epic follow-up, "Dry Leaf", doesn't require this degree of engagement. The reason? It was shot entirely on a now-defunct cameraphone, producing images that leave you wide-eyed and puzzled. Although slightly drawn out to three hours, "Dry Leaf" offers a delightfully curious ride into the obscure and extraordinary.

The film starts with a short montage of everyday scenes: cats, pedestrians, sleeping street dogs, statues, and trees casting long shadows - concluding with an irrefutable dry leaf. Here, your conceptualization of 'beautiful' and 'ugly' might start to shift. Shot on a Sony Ericsson phone that became obsolete in 2011, the bitmapped backgrounds and grainy edges might be considered flaws in any other context. However, here, amidst the backdrop of a fantastic score by Koberidze’s brother, Giorgi, they feel romantically mysterious.

The story revolves around Irakli (played by the director’s father, David Koberidze), a sports university professor who receives a letter from his daughter stating she will leave and asks him not to follow. Ignoring her request, he embarks on a journey following her yet-to-finish works on the decaying football fields of rural Georgia. His companion in this journey is Levan, who suffers from memory loss and can't precisely point out the exact paths they took. Besides, Levan is invisibly appearing and disappearing, just like many characters they meet on their journey.

The journey takes an almost Beckettian form of futility as they find no traces of Lisa, but every dead-end and diversion gives out at least one magnificent spark. Similarly, the film's grainy aesthetics, reminiscent of CCTV footages and psychological thrillers, never create a sense of danger. "Dry Leaf" is less of a search quest and more of a reflection on nostalgia, as the viewer meanders through the narrative - culminating at the term "dry leaf", referring to a dramatic football shot.

The magic of "Dry Leaf" lies in its paradox. Filmed on the smallest of cameras, it demands the largest of screens to appreciate its pixelated beauty. While it's not replete with action, its significance is undeniably captivating. Koberidze successfully uses old, transient technology to create an everlasting cinematic experience, leaving the viewer in awe and raising questions about the hidden wonders in our high-definition reality.