We’re in a run-down bedroom somewhere in the Caucasus, watching a middle-aged man watch television. The bottom-half of the long wall behind him has been painted a creamy pink; its top half is broken up into uneven rectangles of brown and teal. The teal paint is fading at points, revealing the pink base coat underneath. Dotted across the wall, almost forming an arc above him, are large splotches of white paint masking repair work, though one gets the feeling that these are not recent repairs,...