A STORY OF PEOPLE IN WAR AND PEACE
(Documentary — Armenia)
By Ronnie Scheiba BBC presentation, of a Bars Media production.
Variety Magazine
May 21 2007
Produced by Vardan Hovhannisyan. Executive producer, Peter Symes.
Directed by Vardan Hovhannisyan.
Nowadays, there is no dearth of documentaries recording the horrors of
war. What distinguishes Vardan Hovhannisyan’s film about the 1989-1994
conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan is his own participation in the
hostilities as a soldier and his followup study of survivors, including
himself. Neither personalized video diary nor objective reportage,
"A Story of People in War and Peace" unfolds with a remarkably
matter-of-fact, almost serene contemplation on the profound changes
wrought in individuals both by war and by the subsequent peace. Well
received at fests — snagging Tribeca’s new documentary filmmaker
prize — pic is skedded for broadcast throughout Europe.
Helmer Hovhannisyan, as he informs the viewer in his voice-over English
narration, traveled worldwide as a respected frontline journalist
and cameraman before ethnic warfare broke out in his backyard.
Instead of covering the struggle for international news agencies,
he traded in his camera for a rifle and fought for his country, only
filming his fellow soldiers during a five-day stretch of murderously
intense fighting in 1994. This footage later haunted him, and a
question from his son caused him to revisit the images he hadn’t
looked at for more than a decade.
Hovhannisyan embarks on a pilgrimage to discover what happened to the
gaunt, sunken-eyed men he videotaped 12 years previously, bringing
with him photos captured from that tape as well as the computer-loaded
video itself. While what he finds is perhaps predictable, the outcomes
seldom correspond to the original personalities or aspirations of
the long-ago soldiers he interviewed in foxholes or recorded as they
lugged dead brothers through enemy fire.
Thus the peace-loving family guy who tenderly spoke to his beloved
children via Hovhannisyan’s camera has become an embittered career
soldier on a sniper-infested border, his wife and kids having left
him. The teenage war hero, formerly an unhesitating, intrepid leader
of men and killer of 100 enemy troops, no longer knows how to accept
his past or proceed with his future.
Hovhannisyan follows his subjects in their present-day circumstances,
through quaint little burgs or sweeping pastoral vistas, interspersing
these tranquil scenes with the jumpy, hand-held chaos of the old
service tapes. But rather than imposing some particular dramatic rhythm
on the juxtaposition, the filmmaker tries to figure out exactly which
soldier, say, is now the village mailman.
Hovhannisyan brings the viewer into the process with the same casual
ease with which he includes his rediscovered comrades in the creation
of their shared "story."
Tech credits are inconspicuously fine, Vahagn Ter-Hakopian’s
post-bellum lensing as impressive in its serenity as is Hovhannisyan’s
in its wartime immediacy.
Camera (color, DV), Vahagn Ter-Hakopian (peacetime footage),
Hovhannisyan (wartime footage); editor, Tigran Baghinyan; sound,
Karen Tsaturyan. Reviewed at Tribeca Film Festival (competing), May 3,
2007. Running time: 69 MIN.
(Armenian, English dialogue)
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