City of the Sun (2017)
★★ — City of the Sun (2017)
There's a moment in City of the Sun where a man is dismantling a building, high up, no harness, no safety net, nothing. And I found myself gripping the sofa a little tighter, not because of any dramatic score or clever editing, but simply because what I was watching was genuinely dangerous. That image, more than anything else in the film, has stuck with me. Not because of what it says about Georgian society or the economics of a dying industrial town, but just because it's terrifying on a purely human level. A bloke. A crumbling structure. A very long way down.
That tension, though, is almost accidental. Because City of the Sun is not really interested in telling you anything. It's a documentary in the loosest sense of the word. Set in a small Georgian town, it follows a handful of individuals through their daily lives, and it does so with a camera that is, genuinely, stunning. The compositions are extraordinary. There's a real artistry to how this place is framed, and if you're the sort of person who can lose yourself in a beautifully constructed image, there are moments here that will stop you cold.
But here's the thing: pretty pictures only carry you so far. And this film leans so hard into its minimalist, observational approach that it ends up feeling less like a documentary and more like an extended gallery installation. There's no narration, no talking heads, no context offered about the town, its history, or the people we're watching. I'm all for a film that trusts its audience, but trust has to go both ways. At some point, you need to give me something to hold onto. A thread. A question. Anything.
I went in as part of my A-Z World Movie Tour, picking up Georgia, and I was genuinely excited. I knew next to nothing about Georgian cinema, and the prospect of being dropped into a specific place and community felt like exactly what the tour is for. And visually, the film delivered. But I came out the other side knowing barely more about Georgia, or these people's lives, than when I sat down. It's the kind of film that mistakes withholding information for profundity.
Compare that to something like Talking About Trees (2019), another slow, observational documentary from an unfamiliar corner of the world. That film also takes its time, but it never leaves you stranded. There's warmth, character, and a story underneath the stillness. City of the Sun never quite finds that warmth. It keeps you at arm's length throughout.
I don't want to be entirely dismissive, because the craft on display is real. Whoever was behind the camera has a genuine eye, and there are shots here that genuinely moved me on a purely aesthetic level. The light in some of these scenes is extraordinary. But a film can't survive on that alone, and this one runs out of road pretty quickly once you've adjusted to the visual rhythm. By the halfway point, I was clock-watching, and that's never a good sign.
If you're a film student, or someone deeply interested in slow cinema as a form, there's probably enough here to make it worth your while. But if you're coming to it hoping for insight into Georgian life, or even just a story with some kind of shape to it, you're going to come away frustrated. I sat there admiring the images and wishing I felt something beyond that admiration.
Two stars. Beautiful to look at. Not much else going on.
Rating: ★★ | Year: 2017 | Watched: 2025-06-22
Where to watch
Watch in the UK
Stream: Netflix · True Story · DocAlliance Films · Netflix Standard with Ads
Physical: Amazon UK · Zavvi
Watch in the US
Stream: OVID · True Story · DocAlliance Films
Rent: DocAlliance Films
Physical: Amazon US
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