AZG Armenian Daily #074, 26/04/2005
Cinema
INTERVIEW WITH FIPRESCI ARMENIAN DEPARTMENT PRESIDENT
– The International Festival of Rotterdam is one of the most important
European cinema forums. As a FIPRESCI jury member at the 34th Rotterdam
contest what would you point out first of all?
– I was glad to see Armenians participating in competitive and
non-competitive programs. There were competitions of short-length films as
well in Rotterdam along with full-length ones. The short-length films
comprised works by students. The 9-minute-long film “The Donkey” by Areg
Azatian was among 32 films to be screened by 23 countries. The film shot by
Areg’s own script dealt with human-nature relations.
– And?
– It is, of course, a promising start for an armature film director whose
work was elected for such a great festival. This is the case when
participation itself is important.
– Was Areg the only Armenian participant of the contest?
– Yes, he was, but the premier of “On the Sidewalk”, a new film by his
parents, Arsen Azatian and Narine Mkrtchian, took place out of the frames of
the contest. The 18-minute-long movie was a serious reflection over Karabakh
issue. It was important that this theme was raised within the framework of
Rotterdam Festival.
Both Arsen Azatian and Narine Mkrtchian are well-known in Rotterdam as the
their studio “Today plus Filmmaking” was the first independent studio in
Armenia that established relations with Rotterdam Festival in late 1980s and
received overseas support to shoot “Radio – Yerevan” and “Bobo”. Sadly these
relations froze by the time but luckily we are getting over again. Arsen
Azatian and Narine Mkrtchian know how to relate to organizers of film
festivals and different funds and this is vital for Armenian film directors
for showing our films out of Armenia’s borders.
– Were there Diaspora Armenians among the participants? Our overseas
compatriots are rather active in the sphere of cinematography.
– The presence of Arsine Khanjian conditioned by young Canadian film
director Ruba Nadda’s “Sabah” film was somewhat the continuation of the
Armenian theme. “Sabah” is a love story where the female hero, originating
from the Middle East like the director herself, comes from another
background and is the bearer of Islamic culture and the male hero is a
typical westerner. Relations of the heroes come to prove that the honest
feeling unites people in today’s open world erasing differences.