Noyan Tapan News Agency, Armenia
Oct 12 2007

TIGRAN KHZMALIAN SHOOTS FILM "MAIN SECRET OF YEREVAN" ABOUT
ALEXANDER TAMANIAN

YEREVAN, OCTOBER 12, NOYAN TAPAN. Director Tigran Khzhmalian’s
documentary "Main Secret of Yerevan" is dedicated to the life and
fate of Alexander Tamanian, a prominent architect of the 20th
century. Its presentation took place on October 10 at the
house-museum named after the master, with the presence of his
relatives and media. This is the 11th film from the series "Armenia:
20th century."

According to the author, the pupil of Saint Petersburg’s Academy of
Art, to whom preservation of Russian culture was entrusted, who
projected and built many palace buildings in Moscow and Saint
Petersburg, was the architect of the Russian Palace, reached the peak
of glory during his life, but had misfortunes (lost his two
daughters), saw betrayal, persecution, and remained pure and spotless
like his creations.

Tigran Khzmalian said that in the very museum he had revealed the
secret of the great scientist’s and architect’s life through a famliy
portrait, that of Tamanian and his English wife, Camilla Edwards.

The director has profoundly studied Tamanian’s archives and got
convinced that the secret of building Yerevan was the very great love
of the architect and his wife, Camilla. According to Khzmalian,
Yerevan has many secrets: "We live in the period of split and we all
are united by our love for Yerevan. I have tried to reveal the secret
of Yerevan, which, in my opinion, is the great love of Tamanian and
his wife." "It is very important to say just today that love is the
basis of this city, a love between a woman and a man. And everything
in the city should be done with love, if we wish to save our city,
out country, and to have a future," Tigran Khzmalian said.

The director is convinced that but for love, Yerevan would not be so
beautiful. And now, according to him, Yerevan, which has become a
construction site, is developed without love and tenderness, as a
result of which we have the following: square, unprepossessing and
ugly buildings and constructions looking like a painted and cleaned
scarecrow."

Author: Ruzanna Bagratunian
Editor: