A boy standing inside the hollow of an enormous ancient tree, winter forest, Pankisi Valley

Work/Authorial/Fathers' GUIL(T)D

Fathers' GUIL(T)D

From my first visit to the Pankisi Valley, I felt a tension beneath the surface. The men I met there were former Chechen war veterans — once fighters, now farmers, fathers and grandfathers. They sat quietly outside their homes, yet their watchful eyes and restrained gestures revealed wounds that had never fully healed.

What fascinated me, however, were not the warriors themselves, but the families they had left behind.

Over time, I began to recognize parallels between their stories and my own relationship with my father. The same contradictions kept returning: anger and longing, admiration and rejection, distance and the desire for reconciliation.

I returned to Pankisi repeatedly, gradually understanding that the project was becoming as personal as it was documentary. Eventually, I invited my father to join me. Later, my brother came as well, together with his teenage son.

The men portrayed in these photographs belong to different generations, yet each of them is searching for a way to live with the past while building a future for those who come after them.

Fathers' GUIL(T)D is a story about fathers and sons.

About inheritance — not of property, but of gestures, fears, values and expectations.

The stories of the men of Pankisi became a mirror through which I was finally able to look at my own father differently.

Pankisi Valley, Georgia · 2016–2020

I — The Men
Two men photographed in profile against a white wall with dappled shadow — Pankisi Valley
Two older men in close conversation, outdoors — Pankisi Valley
Man with a weapon — Pankisi Valley
II — The Sons
Two boys facing the camera — an older boy behind a younger one, Pankisi Valley
Boy sitting against a dark wall, looking up at a man standing nearby — Pankisi Valley
A man holding a child close in a layered interior portrait — Pankisi Valley
Man from behind in a winter forest, camouflage jacket, late evening light — Pankisi Valley
Boy hanging upside down from a wooden bar against a vast cloudy sky — Pankisi Valley
III — The System of Fathers

The System of Fathers

Conversations recorded in Pankisi Valley.

filmed during the Fathers' GUIL(T)D project

IV — The Mirror
Young man standing on a rocky riverbed, holding a large stone — Pankisi Valley
Young man — Pankisi Valley
Boy sitting against a dark wall, gazing upward toward a man standing at the edge of the frame — Pankisi Valley
Group of boys standing at a makeshift football goal at dusk, mountains behind — Pankisi Valley

What stayed with me most was not strength.

It was absence:

V — Return
A detail from Pankisi Valley — quiet landscape
Man inside a dark wooden interior, a rifle resting nearby — Pankisi Valley
A father and son standing together on a rocky riverbed, mountains in the distance — Pankisi Valley

And, perhaps, to find my own way home.