Armenia Movie Week is slated for July 23-29 in Tehran, Mashhad and Shiraz.
The program will cover 10 feature films from the contemporary cinema of the Republic of Armenia.
It is organized under the auspices of Armenian Embassy in Tehran and Art & Experience cinematic group, affiliated to the Iranian Organization of Cinema and Audiovisual Affairs.
Art & Experience cinematic group covers 18 cinemas across Iran and provides an opportunity for public screening of worthwhile movies chosen from non-commercial films, in order to demonstrate the brilliance of their creators.
According to the website of Art and Experience (aecinema.org), a lineup of movies by contemporary filmmakers from the Caucasus state will be screened during the film week at Iranian Artists Forum (IAF) in Tehran; Hoveizeh Cineplex in Mashhad, center of Khorasan Razavi Province; and at Golestan Cineplex in Shiraz, capital of Fars Province.
The screening program is from 7-9 pm. Two prominent Armenian artists will attend the week-long event: director and producer Aram Shahbazyan, 46, a graduate of Yerevan State Institute of Theater and Cinema; and actor and director Aren Vatyan, 40.
Shahbazyan has two films for Armenia Movie Week: ‘Moskvitch, My Love’ and ‘Map of Salvation.’
‘Moscvitch, My Love’ is about Soviet nostalgia. Having fled Azerbaijan during the collapse of the Soviet Union, Hamo and his wife Aroos live a meager existence in rural Armenia, surviving on the little money their son is able to send from Moscow.
It has long been Hamo’s dream to own a bright red Moskvitch, a car symbolizing Soviet technological prowess and modernity. Every morning in a dream-like ritual, Hamo polishes a toy Moskvitch he has cherished ever since leaving Azerbaijan. When local villager Sako puts his real Moskvitch on sale, Hamo seizes the opportunity.
Shahbazyan’s other movie, ‘Map of Salvation’ is a feature-length docudrama made to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, starting on April 24, 1915.
The film goes back to late 19th century and early 20th, telling about five European women who were witness to the Armenian Genocide and later helped found shelter for Armenian children and women.
From Aren Vatyan, the event will screen ‘The Clay Man.’ The short film is about a lonely elderly potter living in an abandoned village, who has reconciled with the inevitability of death before he realizes the truth: life ends only when one has nothing and nobody to live for.