Panopticon’s Reflection on Masculinity and Power
Set in an ideologically polarized Georgia, Panopticon mirrors a politically fractured America on the brink of a presidential election
I had the privilege of attending an early screening of my brilliant directing professor George Sikharulidze's film, Panopticon, this evening. The film captures the cultural clash between traditionalism and modernity within the ideological landscape of modern Georgia, a country at the intersection of Europe and Asia navigating the tensions between its Soviet past and aspirations toward a more European, liberal future.
Through the story of an eighteen-year-old introvert named Sandro, Panopticon reveals a world where extreme ideologies and authoritarian impulses permeate daily life, drawing striking parallels to the United States as it confronts its own escalating divisions and resurgent male-biased fascist rhetoric during the lead-up to the election.
When Sandro’s father departs to join a monastery, dedicating himself to God, Sandro is left to live with his atheist grandmother in Tbilisi, feeling isolated as his mother works abroad in New York. As he wrestles with abandonment and rigid religious ideals, he finds himself increasingly conflicted by his emerging sexuality. His complicated relationships further pull him into ideological conflict; his soccer mate Lasha, who is entrenched in far-right circles, reinforces extreme neo-fascist ideas, while his relationship with his girlfriend Tina becomes strained as he engages in hidden sexual behaviors yet condemns her for desiring intimacy within their relationship.
Sandro is a walking contradiction: espousing strict moral beliefs while acting out in ways that betray them. His father’s refusal to acknowledge Sandro’s emotional needs—pushing him instead toward religious devotion—leaves Sandro seeking validation in other, darker ways. His friendship with Lasha draws him further into violent extremist activity, a channel for his suppressed rage and need for control. He seeks this control sexually through “happy accidents”—revealing himself to unsuspecting onlookers and at one point tapping a woman’s bottom in a crowded subway, each instance offering him further opportunity for evasion.
Desperate for genuine connection, Sandro becomes fixated on Lasha’s mother, Natalia. He frequently visits her under the pretense of getting haircuts, finding in her a rare warmth and care absent in other areas of his life. This fixation stands in contrast to his interactions with Tina, whose affectionate advances he repeatedly dodges due to his conflicted feelings and inability to express sensitivity.
Sandro’s turmoil reaches a turning point through his interactions with Lana, a classmate he dismisses as a “whore” after seeing dance at a men’s club. Lana challenges his perception, explaining her sense of agency and enjoyment in the pursuit—a perspective that causes further repulsive dismissal from Sandro at the outset.
Following his grandmother’s death and his brutal assault sustained while participating in an anti-Muslim, anti-immigrant riot, Sandro is compelled into a moment of reckoning. Stamped by Lana’s guiding influence, he begins to question his internalized shame and judgment, gradually provoking a pathway for empathy. By the film’s end, he finds himself surrounded by a group of female art students, standing completely nude as a model for their painting session—a practice introduced to him by Lana. In this vulnerable, unguarded space, Sandro tentatively embraces genuine self-expression for the first time.
In Georgian society, women are marginalized by rigid cultural norms, but men, too, suffer under the weight of toxic masculinity, which strips them of emotional authenticity. Highlighting the inherent privilege men hold in this dynamic, the film positions the women as those who confront and dismantle these rigid structures, ultimately exposing Sandro to the humanity beneath his hardened exterior.
This warped masculinity, a pipeline toward incel behaviors defined by emotional repression, aggression, and dominance, finds troubling parallels in the right-wing influences on young men in the United States, where mainstream figures like Joe Rogan promote similarly restrictive tendencies. Sandros internal struggle mirrors that of an American society’s battle– a push for progressive change and a reactionary pull toward autocratic control, emphasizing the global stakes of ideological conflict during political upheaval and reflecting how easily young men, both in Georgia and the U.S., are pulled toward dangerous narratives in a time of heightened ideological tension.