Et Cetera

From Artsakh to Gaza, No One Will Be Free

An Armenian film, “1489” won the Main Jury and the International Federation of Film Critics prizes at the International Documentary Film Festival of Amsterdam in 2023 amid upheaval and controversy that triggered a series of withdrawals and boycotts of the festival for its perceived silence regarding Israel’s invasion of Gaza.
Two Films From One Fountain

Two Films From One Fountain

The juxtaposition of two cinematic adaptations of the same literary work reveals polar perceptions of history, tradition, national culture and lifestyle. And by doing so, it indicates that the boundaries of "Armenian cinema" are much wider than they seem.

5 Dreamers and a Horse

The directors of the documentary “5 Dreamers and a Horse” manage to think outside of genre limitations, and to blend the elements of magical realism and cinéma vérité to create a strange fairy tale that resembles the one in which we all live.

Կաֆկան Արցախում

Kafka in Artsakh

Garegin Papoyan’s film “Bon Voyage” manages to recreate a Kafkaesque world in the form of the Stepanakert Airport, where people follow a seemingly unreasonable system, and continue to do their work with incredible persistence, without questioning its meaning.

Global and Local Art Wars

The inclusion of two conflicting Armenian artists from different eras on a prestigious platform of global contemporary art reveals the need to fundamentally reconsider and rethink the Armenian artistic heritage of the recent past.

Waiting for Spring…

In this review of the film “It Is Spring” dedicated to the Artsakh conflict, Sona Karapoghosyan writes that cinema should be a tool for critically revealing and interpreting the world, and not a bandage to hide our collective complexes and fears.

Power Is (the) Truth

During March 2022, the Word—not only allegorically, but in the most literal sense—finds itself outstretched like the Vitruvian man strung from the corners of our Armenian-Russian-Ukrainian semiotic triangle.

Kond: Urban Information Storage

Kond: Urban Information Storage

Kond is the oldest surviving vernacular neighborhood in Yerevan. Its significance lies not in the current cultural, social and political interpretations but rather in this district’s capacity to store and transfer information across generations.

Meghri: A Fuselage of Memory

Meghri: A Fuselage of Memory

There is a Facebook group of Meghri natives that is more active than the official pages of many institutions. It is, however, also isolated, living a separate life, disconnected from the rest of the digital world just like the actual city.