Essay: Doomed to Run

Directed by Gadzhimurad Efendiev

Deeply personal cinematic journey between two worlds—Catholic Venice and Islamic Dagestan. Inspired by Joseph Brodsky’s essay *Watermark* and Merab Mamardashvili’s lectures on those “doomed to run,” I craft a film-essay about identity, the ache of existing between cultures, and the endless search for home. Through fragments of daily life and raw, intimate phone calls with my mother, I try to make sense of living on the border—between faiths, eras, wars, and pandemics.