A VOYAGE OF SELF-DISCOVERY: DAUGHTER FOLLOWS AILING FATHER TO ARMENIA
By Bernard Perusse, The Gazette

The Gazette (Montreal)
December 15, 2006 Friday
Final Edition

Le Voyage en Armenie (Armenia)
Starring: Ariane Ascaride, Gerard Meylan, Chorik Grigorian

Playing in French and Armenian with English subtitles at: AMC cinema,
with French subtitles at Ex-Centris.

Parents’ guide: nudity, violence.

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Some directors throw everything at the wall in the hope that
something will stick. Too often, that means lack of direction –
one of filmmaking’s greatest enemies. With Le Voyage en Armenie,
Robert Guediguian (Le Promeneur du Champ de Mars) has clearly adopted
a go-for-broke approach – and it works far more often than not.

Mostly character drama, part thriller, with moments of comedy and
a healthy dose of geopolitical manifesto, Guediguian’s film takes
a few missteps in its unwieldiness. On the whole, however, it’s not
only watchable, but entertaining.

Anna (Ariane Ascaride), a rigid cardiologist, is treating her father,
Barsam (Marcel Bluwal). When a serious heart condition is diagnosed,
longstanding issues between the two come to the surface.

Barsam shuns urgently needed surgery and flees to Armenia, his
birthplace.

A worried Anna takes off after him and finds herself in a country
where she knows no one and does not speak the language. Encounters
with a friendly taxi driver (Romen Avinian), a hairdresser’s assistant
who moonlights as a stripper (Chorik Grigorian) and a former general
(Gerard Meylan), who acts as Anna’s de facto protector, begin to
change her. Within a few days, Anna is no longer so sure about her
roots, her father or herself. Exactly as dad intended, of course.

The top draw in Le Voyage en Armenie is Ascaride’s impressive turn
in the pivotal role, which earned her the best-actress award at
this year’s Rome Film Festival. (She also co-wrote the screenplay
with Guediguian and Marie Desplechin). Meylan, however, is more than
capable as her onscreen companion.

Guediguian has filmed the Armenian countryside lovingly, making it,
in effect, a central character.

What doesn’t work? Some oddly out-of-place narrative techniques –
cornball voice-over flashbacks, for example – and some implausible
plot developments, like Anna’s too-casual familiarity with firearms.

The flaws are not fatal. The voyage in the title – both a literal
and an interior one, as it turns out – is worth taking.