"ARARAT-14 VIEWS" PREMIERE TO TAKE PLACE ON APR. 14

PanARMENIAN.Net
24.03.2009 18:58 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ On Apr. 14 "Ararat-14 views". Don Askarian’s film
premier will be screened by European 3sat TV channel.

Mount Ararat is sacred to the Armenians. According to biblical
tradition, this is where Noah’s ark landed following the Great
Flood. Therefore, it remains a painful fact for the Christian
Armenians that the mountain is located on Turkish territory,
where it can only be seen from the distance. "Ararat-14 tesaran"
does not address the question of borders, but deals with a gang
of trigger-happy thieves involved in smuggling rare coins in the
shadow of the great mountain. With unflinching passion, director Don
Askarian has worked for five years on a film that is neither a tragedy,
nor a documentary, nor an experimental film. The images shift from
color to black and white, while animals – fish, snakes, birds, cats,
dogs – infiltrate the screen to interact with the protagonists. The
filmmaker studies Mount Ararat from fourteen different standpoints,
thus creating a new reality. Flirting with magic, he escapes time
and space, transposing a plot that turns into a wild odyssey or an
escape. By and by, Don Askarian’s gaze becomes a vision, that of a
powerful Armenian filmmaker, both hypnotic and amazingly rich.

Don Askarian was born in Armenia in 1949. He studied art history in
Moscow and worked as an assistant-director and film critic before being
arrested in 1975. He immigrated to Berlin in 1975, where he has lived
and worked ever since. All of his films are anchored in the Armenian
culture, and have been presented at many international festivals.