Q&A WITH ALEXANDRE KOBERIDZE

Q. Your last two features were about the life and customs of cities, but Dry Leaf turns its attention to the Georgian countryside. What prompted this shift in location?

A. Well, I wanted to not be in the city and I wanted to spend time with people. We were a very small crew. It was three of us. We took a car. We drove. We slept in the same hotel. We were together all the time. I liked this idea of being together for a long period of time. 

I was also looking for something I didn’t know. What worked for us was not finding everything beforehand and then going there to film; instead, we were just driving around and looking for places. Discovering and filming became one.

Q. There is a four-year gap between each of your features, and each of them is roughly three hours long. Do these lapses account for the films’ durations?

A. These gaps are not periods when I am not making films, just part of elongated processes. There are filmmakers who are faster, but for me it is quite natural for a film to need time. It’s really about having time for filming. 

We knew that we would film in summer and in autumn. That gave me a good feeling while working, because it meant I could repeat everything. When I was filming in summer, I knew I could come back to the same places the next summer. Of course, because you are shooting with the seasons, time passes. But, that feeling that if something is not as good as you want it to be there’s always next year, is calming.

Q. You’ve cited Juan Ramón Jiménez’s Platero as an inspiration on Dry Leaf. What is the film’s relationship to literature?

A. I don’t know if I can put it into words, because literature is something that shapes us a lot. The things we read have a huge impact on us. It starts with the fairy tales that are read to us. I think that moment in our lives when we can’t read but people are reading to us is one of the key moments in our lives. The books you read guide you through life. 

Platero has had a big impact on me as a person, not just on the film. It’s changed how I see the world. How I try to be. How I listen. How I try to spend time. What I imagine art can be. When we talk about how art has power, even in a political sense, I think this offers a good example. The way you experience art, or are affected by something you read or listen to, can change everything.

Q. Much has been made about the fact that you’ve shot this film on a Sony Ericsson. Why do you think audiences have such a strong reaction to seeing images that aren’t shot on more conventional cameras like an Alexia or any of its corollaries?

A. It’s hard to say. I can only speak for myself. For me, the first and most important thing is that I think this camera is beautiful — how it makes pictures and handles light. This beauty has to do with how the camera works with light. It tries to show you as much as possible, but it always fails. You witness this failure. But the fact that it tries is amazing, because it does not surrender. It has this beautiful sensor that tries again, and again, and again. It’s a really stubborn device and to experience this stubbornness, for me, is something very beautiful.

Q. What’s the last film you saw and loved?

A. Lawrence of Arabia.

Q. What’s your favorite football team?

A. FC Barcelona.

Q. What have you been listening to lately?

A. I have a playlist on my phone that I mostly listen to on shuffle. It has very different things on it that I like. When I left my home earlier today it was playing The Smiths and then it changed to Nick Cave. It was a very short trip, so I only made it through two songs. 

Q. What’s next for you?

A. It’s a film connected to music. Music that I listen to a lot. It’s inspired by the Pet Shop Boys’ Bilingual. The film is also called Bilingual, but it has nothing to do with the lyrics of the songs in the album. It’s more about the mood of the album. It’s a romantic crime film.

Q. What image would you like to end this interview with?

A. I took a picture of a crow’s footprints. It’s a little bit cool.