SUDDHA in the land of Girni
It is said that during the Biblical times, the Noah’s Ark had landed in
It is surprising that there are hardly any direct flights to its capital. I had to make a nine hour travel to Moscow, had to undergo a layover of another nine hours which got painstakingly extended to twenty; and had to finally take another three hours flight to back to Yerevan. And my plane had almost flew over
The Golden Apricot International Film Festival is just in its fourth year. But its director Harutun Khachatryan, a filmmaker himself, has already managed to associate it with the Rotterdam and the Pusan Film Festivals. Apart from the usual retrospectives, competition and non competition sections, the festival also had a pitching workshop for Eastern European filmmakers.
SUDDHA (The Cleansing Rites) was in the competition section. I was pleasantly surprised when after the screening, people observed and talked about the sound design of the film. I had proudly designed it myself and this was the first time someone had noticed it without me having to blow my own trumpet!
The public screening had around forty members watching the film, including a few Indian students. Many decades back, apparently the Armenians like the rest of the Soviet Block, had swayed to the tune of Raj Kapoor and his ‘Awaara’. Indian Cinema is identified with the song and dance routine. It was indeed heartening to see the public take a liking to this small non mainstream digital film made in a language that many in
I saw ‘Alexandra’ a Russian film directed by Aleksandr Sokurov. It is about an old lady’s visit to her grandson serving in a Russian military camp situated within the
Faruk Loncarevic’s ‘Mom ‘n’ Dad: Reality Show’ is a stubbornly slow paced movie that portrays the daily monotonous life of an elderly couple staying alone in
‘Tressette- A story of an
There are only a few Armenian films being made these days and almost most of them are funded or co-produced by the cultural department of the Armenian government. ‘The Priestess’ by Vigen Chaldranian tells the story of a priestess of an Armenian temple in Girni, in a violent era which saw
In my brief stay in Yeravan, I noticed that the Armenians are proud of the fact that they are the first state in the world to adopt Christianity. But in this film, an Armenian historian is in search of his country’s identity that goes beyond the Christian era. The
The genocide of the Armenians by the military in
‘The Last Lark’ directed by the Taviani Brothers was the opening film of the festival. It talks about one such Armenian family caught in the genocide. Although a few men from the Turkish delegation who were attending the Film Festival later told me privately that the film was too simplistic and heavily one sided, the Armenians gave a standing ovation to the film that lasted more than five minutes. The clapping never seemed to stop!
During the festival, I have had the opportunity to acquaint myself with some wonderful people. Critics – Klaus Edgar, An Cheong-sook, Anna Gareb, Zaven Boyajyan; Producer -Behrooz Hashmian; Distributor - Hans Hodel and directors like Pavao Marinkovic, Peter Lom, Sergy Bukovsky and Celine Gulekjian.
Hrant Hakobyan the veteran Armenian director, with whom I have had many intense discussions about India related issues like Satyajit Ray, Raj Kapoor, the Richird Gere - Shilpa Shetty kiss saga and the likes of it; signed off my trip with the comment – ‘Deep in my heart I do believe that there is a deep connection between India and Armenia’.
How wonderful it would have been if this would result in a co-production between the two countries. It would come very much in handy for me, because as such I am finding it difficult to raise the necessary money for my second film.
I realized only after I came back to
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