CHALDRANYAN’S NEW FILM ‘MAESTRO’ BRINGS MARCH 1 EVENTS TO THE BIG SCREEN

Tert
Nov 2 2009
Armenia

Vigen Chaldranyan’s Maestro premiered at Yerevan’s Moscow Cinema on
October 31. The theatre was more than crowded: the amount of people in
attendance were twice as many as there were seats. The reason? Because
the premier was not limited to the screening of the film: Armenia’s
State Philharmonic Orchestra and Hover Chamber Choir, besides having
direct connection with the film, gave a concert before the screening.

Chaldranyan’s Maestro is about composer and violoncellist Armen
Tigranyan, celebrating his 60th birthday, whose story runs parallel to
the events of March 1, 2008. He sometimes comes into direct contact
with the people gathered before the Opera House and later with the
"crowd" gathered at Shahumyan Square, expressing what the film has
to say with his position on and characterizations of the events. The
maestro, played by actor Mikael Poghosyan, also personifies the "crowd"
and at the end of the film he "gets furious" because of a dog’s bite.

The maestro is the cellist of the state philharmonic orchestra. The
orchestra with its full composition and headed by Art Director Eduard
Topchyan participated in the film shooting. It is not by chance that in
November 2008, Chaldranyan and Poghosyan, together with the orchestra,
participated in tours in Japan, which was summed up in Chaldranyan’s
documentary film.

At the end of the film, they find someone to substitute the cellist in
the orchestra, who continues the maestro’s Requiem rehearsals. Vache
Sharafyan’s work is also for a choir, which is performed by Hover.

This Requiem is finally performed as an elegy to the city, ruined
after March 1 events.

For the first time after March 1 events, this painful page of
independent Armenia’s history appeared on the screen with documentary
shots that didn’t even make it on YouTube during last year’s days where
a state of emergency was declared in Yerevan. Many would agree that
there’s no better way to bring "propaganda" to the people better than
through mass art like cinema; something Soviet leaders did effectively
during the years of social realism. How it will translate in this case,
only time will tell.