Armenia

The first movie to be directed by Stepan Andranikyan, better known as Sergei Parajanov’s art director. Based on a story by Andranikyan’s neighbour, it was originally meant to be entirely wordless, but officials insisted he add a narrative poem explaining the story about the love between Astghik, the star of the night, and the young sun Vahagn.

Sources differ on the year of release, with Armenian ones (including Kinodaran) saying 1971 and Russian ones (including animator.ru) saying 1972. It won 2nd prize in the animation category at the All-Union Film Festival in Alma-Ata, Kazakh SSR, 1973.Read More »

Today, Mel Divan is a successful American businessman with a terminal illness. But long ago he was an infamous criminal who escaped from a mental institution in Communist Armenia. With the rise of capitalism, Mel returns to Armenia to make good on a promise to deliver the bounty of his robbery to the widow of a fellow thief. Mel plans on spending only enough time in Armenia to locate the widow. But nostalgia and fate drive him, as the same mental institution from which he escaped is now on the auction block. Mel buys it and finds refuge in running the psychiatric hospital while living among its eclectic residents and helping each in a unique way. Mel will live his final days as a saint provided he can keep one step ahead of the Chief Psychiatrist and a local Mob Boss.Read More »

In April (Armenia 1985), on the 70th anniversary of the genocide, on April 24, 1985, Vigen Chaldranyan stages a conversation between the generations in a mixture of comedy and bitter seriousness. As every year, the veterans talk about the days of the war. But while their sons can no longer hear all this, the grandchildren feel called upon to “solve the Armenian question”.Read More »

Tragic events in Armenian history are echoed in this incisive film. Arakel Eloyan, a survivor of the 1915 genocide, has built a new life with his family in Soviet Armenia.
Still, he longs to once again see his home village, now a part of Turkey. His nostalgic yearning pulls him across the Soviet border, but the Soviet government views his journey as a potential act of treason.Read More »

Vazgen, Sako, Suren and Aram are taxi drivers and close friends. When Aram fell in hopeless love with Karine, other three decide to help their friend.Read More »

The film is dedicated to the Armenian monk and genius composer Komitas, and the 2 million victims on his people in Turkey in 1915. The final 20 years of Komitas life were spent in various mental hospitals. The destiny of Komitas? This is the magic beauty of Armenian culture and the abhorrent brutality of Armenian history. A cultural and artistic world that was slaughtered with a curved knife. A humanity that doggedly advances towards an apocalyptic catastrophe, that does not recognize its own original purpose, eradicates its own memory, its final roots.Read More »

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The movie goes back to the beginning of the century. After the death of his unfaithful wife Heghnar, Master Mkrtich builds an unusual spring in her honour. Its water stops flowing as soon as a stranger approaches it. Only Mkrtich, her husband, can drink water from the spring.Read More »

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Statement by Hamlet Hovsepian regarding the films:
“”What have been presented are totally unrelated events (material) at the outset. The relation between them portrays neither pleasant nor unpleasant feelings. To find interest in a place outside man’s attention.”Read More »

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“Rotation around a rock” / during socialism / the passage of days and decades came to resemble one another, that was our life. Monotonous life chases after us and we are chasing after it.” (Hamlet Hovsepian)Read More »