VIGEN CHALDRANIAN’S ‘PRIESTESS’ TO BE PREMIERED IN LOS ANGELES

Armenpress
Jan 8 2006

YEREVAN, JANUARY 8, ARMENPRESS: "Priestess,’ the latest film shot
by one of the leading Armenian film directors, Vigen Chaldranian,
will be premiered on January 25 in Chinese Theater cinema house in
Glendale, California, USA.

The film will be screened also by cinema houses in Los Angeles,
San Francisco and New York.

Speaking to Armenpress Chaldranian said the main idea behind this film
was to present Armenia as the first nation to convert to Christianity
and adopt it as their national faith.

The film was first shown in Yerevan last October.

Chaldranian said the main source of information for the film was the
‘History of Armenia’ by a 5-century Armenian historian Agatangeghos.

The film was done in just five months in a Los Angeles studio and
in Armenia.

"The idea to make this film occurred to me first back in 1993 when an
actress Anahit Aghasarian and I began to work on its script, but we
could not materialize it largely due to financial problems," he said.

Chaldranian said 600 costumes were made specially for this film,
which is the first large-scale Armenian film in the last decades.

The film lasts 150 minutes. The original music is composed by Ara
Gevorkian.