Jackals and Drones (Chronicles of A Summer)

The narrative follows a road movie schema, but only superficially: a Belgian actress arrives in Tbilisi airport to travel to the medieval cave city of Vardzia. Her journey with two non-professional actors drives the narrative forward, while Medoidze’s camera records their encounters with jackals, drones and the Orthodox monks, amongst others. Vardzia’s beautiful, desert-like landscape only appears through a car window, reflecting a fragmentation of life of the film’s protagonists. Parallel to the journey, a mythopoetic personage resembling Medea roams the caves, scorning our obsession with progress and technology. The film starts and ends with the rain that comes as if in answer to her prayers, a confirmation of nature’s sacred status.