ARMENIA

At the turn of the century, filmmaking in Armenia was all but impossible due to the war torn countryside. In a short space of time, two horrific events impacted the population – the indiscriminate massacre of christian Armenians by Ottoman forces from 1894-96, and the horrific 1914-15 genocide of Armenian nationals by the Turkish rulers, a slaughter that resulted in over 1million Armenian deaths.

Through this period, as silent cinema was taking the world by storm, the besieged people of Armenia were in no state to make or screen films. The one truly landmark film that addressed the Armenian experience was Ravished Armenia (a.k.a. Auction of Soles), a 1919 American film directed by Oscar Apfel, based upon the autobiography of its leading lady, Arshaluys Mardiganian. The film became an international sensation for its shocking depiction of the horrors of the genocide, included the flogging of Armenian women and their nude crucifixion.

On April 16, 1923, the establishment of the Armenian State Committee on Cinema (or ‘Goskino’) represented a bold statement by the ruling Soviet government. Young Russian filmmakers such as Hamo Bek-Nazaryan, Patvakan Barkhudaryan, Levon Kalantar and Amasi Martirosyan forged a distinctive Armenian cinema with films such as the melodrama Namus (1925; pictured, right); the epics Zare (1927) and Khaspush (1928); and, the comedies Shor And Shor-Shor (1926), Mexican Diplomats (1932) and Kikos (1931). The first feature-length Armenian documentary was produced in this period, I. Kraslavsky’s pro-Soviet 1924 work Soviet Armenia, focussing on the nation’s reconstruction in the wake of World War I.

By the late 1920’s, the full-scale studio Armenkino is in operation and the first ‘talkie’, Hamo Bek-Nazaryan’s drama Pepo (1935; pictured, below right) is a hit both domestically and abroad. But for much of the 1930s and 1940s, Armenian filmmaking stagnates. The totalitarian regime strictly controls the content of all art during this period; film output is reduced, with the rare local releases primarily examining the history of conflict of the region (Zangezur, 1938; David-Bek, 1944; and, Aleksandr Dovzhenko’s documentary Native Country, 1945).

It would not be until the mid 1950’s that Armenian cinema began producing independent, ambitious films. The ‘bigscreen epic’ returned, usually centred on such figures as Simon Arshaki Ter-Petrosian, a.k.a. ‘Kamo’; his heroics were depicted in such films as Erazm Karamyan and Stepan Kevorkov’s Personally Known (1958), the first of a trilogy of films about the Bolshevik revolutionary. Artashes Hay-Artyan’s Northern Rainbow (1960) was an early example of a braver political voice in Armenian cinema with its depiction of the 1828 Russian-Persian war and the activities of Russian writer Alexander Griboedov.

A decisive, strong Armenian cinema emerges more fully in the 1960’s, when short filmmakers undertook often incendiary statements about the ruling government. Avdo’s Car, a short that boldly interprets Soviet policies and actions while in power, is censored and forbidden from public screenings; Broken Promise, Tzhvzhik, Fired Lever and The Master And The Servant rile authorities but inspire artists and intellectuals.

Soon, features are embracing the notion that Armenia has suffered ‘between the hammer and the anvil’ in local conflicts - Khoren Abrahamyan’s Brother Saroyans (1969), Grigori Melik-Avakyan’s Seven Songs About Armenia (1967), Henrik Malyan’s We and Our Mountains (1969) and Laert Vagharshyan’s documentary Martiros Saryan (1965) all depict a strong, brave nation defying the impact on its borders of its warring neighbours.

The most important filmmaker in Armenian cinema history came from this period – Sergey Parajanov (pictured, right). Having broken free of the systemic control of Armenian cinema with his 1965 film Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors, he exploded onto the world stage with his groundbreaking film The Color Of Pomegranate (1969), a re-edit of his previously banned feature Sayat Nova. However, following its breakout success, Parajanov was persecuted by Soviet officials for his pronounced bisexuality and subversive art and would ultimately serve four years in jail, despite global efforts to free him led by such notables as Yves Saint Laurent, Françoise Sagan, Jean-Luc Godard, François Truffaut, Luis Buñuel, Federico Fellini, Michelangelo Antonioni and Andrei Tarkovsky. Parajanov would not direct another feature until The Legend of Suram Fortress, in 1985.

Infrastructure serving Armenia’s film industry receives funding through the 1970s, with both Armenfilm and the Studio of Documentary Films opening state-of-the-art studio space in Yerevan. Armenian cinema of the period expands its narratives, offering social realism (Arman Manaryan’s Our Daily Water, 1976) and the growth of homegrown comedy (Edmond Keosayan’s The Men, 1973; Nerses Hovhannisyan’s Bride of the North, 1975; Dmitri Kesayants’ The Soldier and the Elephant, 1978, and A Man From Olympus, 1976).

As societal pressures stabilize and the economy grows, so to does Armenian cinema. The 1980s launched with Sergey Israyelyan's drama Gikor (1982; pictured, right), based upon Hovhannes Tumanyan's oft-told tale of a boy’s coming-of-age hardships (it was previously filmed in 1934). The decade solidified the reputation of such talents as Albert Mkrtchyan (The Good Half of Life, 1979; The Song of the Old Days, 1982; The Tango of Our Childhood, 1985), leading to the confident emergence of new talents in the 1990s. The reputation of the sector was at an all-time high thanks to such works as Harutyun Khachatryan’s Wind of Forgetfulness (1989) and Mikael Dovlatian’s Labyrinth (1996).

Armenia is not a sector that is booming but it is an industry with strong advocacy and support from the global sector. Modern filmmakers such as Harutyun Khachatryan (Return Of The Poet, 2005), Ruben Kochar (Metamorphoses, 2008), Vardan Hovhannisyan (A Story Of People In War And Peace, 2007), Arshakyan Yelena (An Uninterrupted Flight (2015), Sarik Andreasyan (The Earthquake, 2016), Mger Mkrtchyan (The Line, 2016), Darya Shumakova (Coming Home, 2018) and Alexey Zlobin (Lorik, 2018) are duly respected in their homeland and abroad; comedy is popular with domestic audiences, with Gor Kirakosian’s US co-production Lost and Found in Armenia (2012) and Arman Marutyan’s Super Mother films (2015, 2017) both doing big business.

Sadly, the heart of the Armenfilm production sector has been neglected. The Armenfilm Studios have fallen into disrepair, the 100 year-old facility moribund after private ownership and planned revitalisation projects have failed. A film has not been shot there in over ten years. In March 2019, ownership of the Yerevan site was transferred to a trust company called ‘Kinoket Productions’; the Minister of Economic Development and Investments, Tigran Khachatryan said that over the next 3.5 years, Kinoket will invest 2.5 million euros in the national film company.

Hopefully, a new wave in Armenian film production is not far away…

KEY EVENT:
Golden Apricot Yerevan International Film Festival – Yerevan, Armenia; July. Presented each year under the theme, ‘Crossroads of Cultures and Civilizations.
From the website: “Years of passion and love for cinema resulted in the establishment of Golden Apricot Yerevan International Film Festival in 2004. Before then, it was just a dream in three people’s minds - Harutyun Khachatryan, Film Director and Festival General Director; Mikayel Stamboltsyan, Film Critic and Program Director; and Susanna Harutyunyan, Film Critic and Artistic Director. The festival's name refers to the fruit native to Armenia, whose Latin name is ‘prunus аrmeniaсa,’ or ‘the Armenian plum.’ A popular symbol of the country, the warm colour of apricot is even found on the tricolored national flag.”
CONTACT: 3 Moskovyan Str., 0001, Yerevan.
Tel/Fax: 10 52 10 42 (62)
Em: info@gaiff.am ; Web: http://www.gaiff.am

INDUSTRY:
Armenian National Cinematheque
25A Tbilisyan Highway,
375052 Yerevan
Tel: +374-10-28 54 06
Em: filmadaran@yahoo.com

Armenain National Cinema Centre
38, Pushkin Str.,
Yerevan, Armenia
Tel./Fax: 10 51 82 30 (31)
E-mail: kinokentron@yahoo.com, abovyans@yahoo.com

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