While delving into the collective emotional response triggered each September by recent traumatic events in Armenia, Ella Kanegarian-Berberian explores the potential for healing through representation. Using the biopic “The Other Side of the Medal”—which tells the story of weightlifting champion Nazik Avdalyan—it reflects on the importance of overcoming grief and loss.
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.
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.
The decay of cinema as an intellectual and creative medium is difficult to deny and poster art, that once acted as a visual portal into the film’s world and less as a means of direct advertisement, has been replaced by nondescript and formulaic film advertising.
Armenia’s local film industry has managed to slowly bounce back after nearly two decades of stasis with an average of 25 features per year. But do these films truly reflect the realities of the people and the country that they purport to represent?
Anush Vardanyan sheds new light on the inspiring and tragic fate of the Armenian film industry’s spearheading founder, Daniel Dznuni.
EVN Report’s mission is to empower Armenia, inspire the diaspora and inform the world through sound, credible and fact-based reporting and commentary. Our goal is to increase public trust in the media. EVN Report is the media arm of EVN News Foundation registered in the Republic of Armenia in 2017.
