‘Vodka’s’ not quite pink lemonade
By Gary Arnold

Washington Times
Dec 24 2004

“Vodka Lemon,” opening exclusively at the Landmark E Street Cinema
tomorrow, looms as a marginal outreach project for novelty-seeking
art-house patrons. Absorbed in the texture of life in a snowbound,
impoverished and essentially disheartening village somewhere in
Kurdish Armenia, the movie is deficient in dramatic incident and
variety, stimulating social observation or lively character
interplay.
The work of a Kurdish Iraqi exile named Hineer Saleem, who left
his homeland 20 years ago and now resides in Paris, the movie
attempts to generate whimsical and even hopeful notes of humor
despite a setting that favors the static and morose. The title
alludes to a roadside tavern that seems to deal exclusively in
bottles of Vodka Lemon, presumably a fortifier along trackless
wastes. Actually, it’s more in the nature of an open-air counter,
similar to a roadside produce stand.

The boss of the watering hole arrives at one point to inform his
bundled-up waitress, a middle-aged widow named Nina (Lala
Sarkissian), that business is too slow to justify her employment.
This doesn’t come as a total surprise, bearing in mind the adage
“location, location, location.”
A lugubrious matchmaker, Mr. Saleem intends Nina as a potential
companion for a somewhat older widower named Hamo (Romen Avinian), a
white-haired former soldier who seems to be selling off all his
remaining possessions while awaiting financial assistance in vain
from a son who has migrated to France. Another son, evidently beyond
hope as a donor, is said to live in Samarkand. A sullen third
specimen called Dilovan (Ivan Franck) is in camera range; he still
lives in the village, nursing grievances about the fixer who has
promised to arrange a job somewhere in the vast reaches of the former
Soviet empire.
Hamo is wistful about the departure of the Russians, who at least
kept up the dole. We observe that he is a less-than-wily bargainer
when putting his own goods up for grabs: a wardrobe, a Soviet
television monitor and an old uniform go for about 20 percent of his
initial asking price. Hamo and Nina often share a bus ride during
daily trips to the cemetery, obviously a symbolic as well as a
picturesquely bleak landmark.
There are amusing deadpan details, particularly the local
fondness for posting chairs outside in order to share a nice cold
sit, smoke and, on rare occasions, chat. A drafty-looking community
center allows some shelter for socializing, but the liveliest
communal activity appears to be waiting for Hamo to get a call from
Paris. A small herd of sheep is linked metaphorically to the docile
populace, and an enigmatic horseman does four or five enigmatic
ride-throughs.
Ultimately, Mr. Saleem wraps up this tour of stagnating
small-town Armenia by playing the magic realism card. Nina, Hamo and
her piano share a wistful vigil on the side of the road before
hitting the road, in a physically impossible way. Still, the mobility
itself is encouraging. The resale value of their hometown looks nil.
A getaway could be just the ticket. Maybe Paris is in the market for
piano duets.
**
TITLE: “Vodka Lemon”
RATING: No MPAA Rating (adult subject matter, with fleeting
violence and sexual allusions)
CREDITS: Written and directed by Hiner Saleem. Cinematography by
Christophe Pollock. Production design by Albert Hamarash. Music by
Michel Korb. In Armenian, Kurdish, Russian and French with English
subtitles
RUNNING TIME: 88 minutes
WEB SITE:
MAXIMUM RATING: FOUR STARS