HUNDRED YEARS OF ARMENIAN CINEMA
The extensive program will also include a look back at past editions, as one of the old friends of the festival returns to the Tribute To a Vision festival. In cooperation with the Association of Armenian Directors of Photography and the Armenian film wizard Harutyun Khachatryan, recipient of the Darko Bratina Award in 2009, we will celebrate the hundred anniversary of Armenian cinema with a selection of short and feature films.
In those crazy times of ours, when 120.000 Armenians are blockaded in a piece of land stuck in humanitarian crisis without any open border, Harutyun Khachatryan is back to this borderless Tribute to a Vision IFF, to celebrate together the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Cinema with an impressive showcase of Armenian short films as well as a special exhibition and a mini-retrospective program of his films. Harutyun’s film Border will be screened again after more than 10 years - a film that eloquently embodies the cross-border concept of the festival.
By Tatevik Manoukian
HARUTYUN KHACHATRYAN
Harutyun Khachatryan (1955, Akhalkalak, Georgia) is an Armenian director whose oeuvre consisting of fourteen films perfectly portrays the Armenian reality and culture through his original poetics and emotional photography. After completing his film studies in 1981, he worked as director and directing assistant, and later became the head of the documentary department of the Armenfilm Studio, also known as Hayfilm, The National Cinema Centre of Armenia. Khachatryan is also the co-founder and director of the Golden Apricot International Film Festival in Yerevan, Armenia, an important platform for intercultural exchange and for the development of Armenian cinema.
Photo: Jernej Skrt
FILMS
Border
Harutyun Khachatryan, Netherlands, Armenia, 2009, 82'
The story is set in the period after the collapse of the Soviet Union, after the Armenian-Azerbaijani war. This is a time when a huge empire collapsed and many conflicts arose between nations. The film tells the story of a village near the disputed territory, where benefactors of Armenian descendants from America opened a charity canteen, and a nearby farm where refugees from different places find work. The story begins when the villagers come across a wounded buffalo, half dead, caught in the barbed wire at the border. The buffalo is brought to the farm, where it becomes a stranger and an enemy of the guard dogs, the animals that have taken refuge there, for the war-weary refugees, in whom the explosions arouse violence. Through the eyes of a buffalo, we observe life in the village in all seasons. Summer, autumn and winter pass. The weather is changing, but the monotonous life in the village moves on just as slowly. As we follow the buffalo, we also observe life around the farm and village.
Endless escape, eternal return
Harutyun Khachatryan, Armenia, Netherlands, Switzerland, 2014, 90'
Between 1988 and the early '90s, three events shook Armenia: a terrible earthquake, the Nagorno-Karabakh war, and the fall of the USSR. As a result, some people chose exile. Khachatryan, a maestro of Armenian cinema, follows the audacious destiny of one of those men who decided to leave their homeland, creating an epic and moving portrait of a tireless narrator.
Three graves of the artist
Harutyun Khachatryan, Ruben Khachatryan, Armenija, 2023, 120'
Father and son, Harutyun Khachatryan and Ruben Khachatryan tell the story of the talented Armenian painter Vahan Ananyan's adventurous life and artistic heritage. Vahan, being born and raised in Yerevan, but growing increasingly disappointed in Armenian reality (the earthquake, the war, the collapse of the Soviet Union), moves to Tallinn, then Kyiv and Odesa to works there. After his passing Vahan's remains were buried in Tallinn, Odesa, and Yerevan. His artistic heritage remains in faraway countries.
SHORT ARMENIAN FILMS
Korean Delicacy
Hambardzum Hambardzumyan, Armenia, 2021
Gazan had heard on the radio that dog meat is a delicacy in Korea. After drinking and smoking joint he talks the 8 year old boy’s father into killing his son’s dog and eating it.
Tombé
Diana Kardumyan, Armenia, 2018
Kara works in the «Goldfish» eatery all day long washing dishes. Her life has become a closed circle of grey days far from the colors of the big city. Every day she walks home alone at night. She saves money for family. But one night an unexpected incident changes her daily routine.
Equation with Two Variables
Lusine Papoyan, Armenia, 2022
While selling goods in the train carriage, Mkhitar notices his peer, Karen, who has his feet resting on the front seat and his head slumped over the textbook. Silently obeying Mkhitar's sign, Karen lowers his legs and turns. Mkhitar tries various methods to contact him. Karen, with the bag hanging around his neck, starts shouting to attract the attention of the passengers in the train carriages, trying to sell Mkhitar's goods, while Mkhitar himself remains in deep contemplation - is he thinking about a chess puzzle or life in general?
The Granny
Aram Shahbazyan, Armenia, 2020
The roughness on the wall of the altar, which the shooting crew ignored, twists around and turns their inner world upside down.
Back to Rock
Gor Yengoyan, Armine Harutynyan, Armenia, 2023, 9'
Due to evolution, people turn into sexless and faceless creatures, practically devoid of any emotions, living on command and busy only getting food and energy. But human nature is unchangeable and the desire for freedom and originality cannot be controlled.
