Author: Navasardian Karapet

Daily Variety
September 16, 2004, Thursday

Yes

SCOTT FOUNDAS

A GreeneStreet Films and U.K. Film Council presentation of an
Adventure Pictures production in association with Studio Fierberg.
Produced by Christopher Sheppard, Andrew Fierberg. Executive
producers, John Penotti, Paul Trijbits, Fisher Stevens, Cedric
Jeanson.

Directed, written by Sally Potter. Camera (Eclair color, Super 16mm),
Alexei Rodionov; editor, Daniel Goddard; music, Potter; production
designer, Carlos Conti; art director, Claire Spooner; costume
designer, Jacqueline Durran; sound (Dolby Digital), Jean-Paul Mugel;
supervising sound editor, Vincent Tulli; associate producers, Lucie
Wenigerova, Diane Gelon; casting, Irene Lamb. Reviewed at Telluride
Film Festival, Sept. 5, 2004. (Also in Toronto Film Festival —
Special Presentations.) Running time: 99 MIN.

She …. Joan Allen

He …. Simon Abkarian

Anthony …. Sam Neill

Cleaner …. Shirley Henderson

Aunt …. Sheila Hancock

Kate …. Samantha Bond

Grace …. Stephanie Leonidas

Billy …. Gary Lewis

Virgil …. Wil Johnson

Whizzer …. Raymond Waring

Bursting with heavy-handed postulations about everything from global
terrorism to the ethos of dust particles, Sally Potter’s “Yes” is a
deeply idiosyncratic essay film made under the signs of Derek Jarman,
Peter Greenaway and playwright Tony Kushner, but not nearly up to the
level of those artists’ best work. Staring Joan Allen as an
Irish-American scientist who enters into an affair with a Lebanese
cook, pic ultimately has nothing of any real depth or profundity to
say, but a thousand self-consciously complex ways of saying it. Sure
to have its partisans, as it did in Telluride, pic is the type of
purely intellectual construct that, even when it works, inspires most
audiences to say “No.”

Arriving on the heels of Potter’s terminally silly Johnny Depp
starrer “The Man Who Cried” and the solipsistic “The Tango Lesson,”
“Yes” serves as further indication that Potter’s striking 1992
feature, “Orlando,” may have been a fluke.

After opening with an amusing if showy monologue delivered directly
to camera by chameleonic Scottish actress Shirley Henderson (playing
a housemaid), “Yes” switches its focus to a molecular biologist
(Allen) and her politico husband (Sam Neill), trapped in a busted-up
marriage.

At a dinner party, Allen (whose character is unnamed in the film and
referred to in press notes only as “She”) catches the eye of the cook
(Armenian thesp Simon Abkarian, fittingly known only as “He”). She
flirts with him a bit and leaves him with her phone number. After
returning from an international conference, she calls him up and an
affair begins.

By this point, it’s already obvious that “Yes” is no ordinary tale of
adultery. Not only have the characters not been assigned names, but
when they open their mouths, dialogue tends to emerge as rhyming
couplets — often quite bad ones. (Example: “Call me whore. I’ll ask
for more.”) On those occasions when the dialogue takes a momentary
respite, viewers are made privy to the characters’ innermost
thoughts, presented as rambling voiceovers in the fashion Wim Wenders
employed (to much stronger effect) in “Wings of Desire.”

Pic is built around a series of encounters between He and She,
including one particularly silly public display of sexual attraction
that feels like an outtake from Jane Campion’s “In the Cut.” However,
viewers never learn more than the most basic information about who
these people are or what drives them — a strategy that might have
worked better if the film’s theoretical ideas were themselves more
interesting.

Clearly, as in Kushner’s “Homebody/Kabul,” Potter intends her
characters to register less in a specific sense than as archetypical
sides of a timely geopolitical divide — the compassionate, yet
inevitably imperialistic Westerner trying, yet failing to understand
the psychologically and emotionally oppressed Middle Easterner. But
unlike Kushner — or, for that matter, Jean-Luc Godard, in the
recent “Our Music” — Potter never moves past the surface of that
cliche notion.

While an assortment of other narrative tangents present themselves
— She’s guilt-riddled relationship with elderly Irish aunt (Sheila
Hancock); He’s tense dealings with the other members of the kitchen
staff — “Yes” only becomes increasingly tedious as it progresses.

And though Allen and Abkarian (who made a big impression as the lead
in Michel Deville’s “Almost Peaceful” in 2002) are powerful actors,
both are finally at a loss in their efforts to make something
meaningful out of the material, or at least something closer to a
movie than a doctoral thesis.

Shot in Super 16mm by Alexei Rodionov, pic has a deliberately grainy,
slightly overexposed texture, which Potter then transfigures through
an endless succession of dissolves, video-shot inserts, slow-motion
effects and other manipulations that seem designed (as in the worst
of Greenaway) to keep auds from noticing how empty pic really is.

Soundtrack is a similarly undigested overload of recycled pieces by
Tom Waits, Philip Glass and Kronos Quartet, plus original
compositions by Potter herself.

Note: Originally ran in the September 15, 2004 Gotham edition.

Khatami assesses outcomes of his three-nation tour as positive

IRNA< Iran
Sept 15 2004

Tehran, Sept 15, IRNA — President Mohammad Khatami here Tuesday
evening assessed the outcomes of his visit to Armenia, Belarus and
Tajikistan and his presence at the ECO summit as positive.

Talking to reporters at Mehrabad International Airport upon his
arrival, Khatami said the three countries are Iran`s friends which
have had good relations with Tehran since their independence.

“Attempts have been made that ties with the three states be directed
towards progress and development with more speed,” he said. He added
during his visit to Armenia, which took place at the invitation of
his Armenian counterpart, the two countries signed seven documents
for cooperation, adding the document on transfer of Iran`s gas to
Armenia was the most important one.

In the visit to Armenia, the sides discussed bilateral, regional and
international issues, the president noted.

Pointing to natural and industrial resources of Belarus, he said
Tehran and Minsk inked five documents.

Khatami said the commission of Iran`s potentials in Belarus will
be set up, adding a factory will also be established in Belarus for
joint production of paper.

He referred to the deep-rooted cultural ties with Tajikistan and said,
“Iran`s trade exchanges with Tajikistan have been increased during
recent years by three times but there still exist some potentials
for further promotion of ties.”

Khatami noted that Iran and Tajikistan signed six documents, including
construction of Anzab tunnel and Sangtudeh power plant in participation
of Iran, Russia and Tajikistan.

Pointing to the ECO summit, held in Tajikistan on Tuesday,
the president stated that in today`s complicated world regional
organizations can play an effective role, adding regarding potentials
of the region and common history and culture of ECO nations, the
Economic Cooperation Organization can take many useful measures.
He stressed that Iran`s two proposals on reforming the trend of ECO
decision-making and establishing ECO free trade zone were approved
during the organization`s summit.

It is expected that the ECO would achieve its goal regarding the
setting up of the free trade zone by 2015, Khatami said.

He added that he held separate meetings with his Tajik, Afghan and
Kyrgyz counterparts as well as the prime ministers of Pakistan and
Turkey on the sidelines of the ECO summit.

President Mohammad Khatami arrived in Tehran on Tuesday evening,
ending his three-nation tour which took him to Armenia, Belarus
and Tajikistan.

EU commission meets religious minority representatives in Turkey

Anatolia news agency, Ankara
9 Sep 04

Istanbul, 9 September: Turkey’s membership to the European Union
(EU) and the problems of minorities in Turkey were discussed during
the meeting of Guenter Verheugen, EU commissioner for enlargement,
in Fener Greek Patriarchate on Thursday [9 September].

Chief Rabbi of Jews in Turkey Ishak Haleva told reporters after the
meeting that they had a fruitful meeting with Verheugen. He added,
“everything is fine in Turkey after EU adjustment laws and the most
important thing is that there is goodwill.”

Meanwhile, Vatican’s representative in Turkey George Marovich said that
important progress was made regarding Turkey’s entry to the EU. He
added, “Turkish people deserve to be governed by democracy. Turkey
will bring richness to Europe with its accession to the EU. Europe
will also benefit from Turkey’s richness.”

The Syriac Catholic community’s representative, Yusuf Sag, told
reporters that Turkey’s membership to the EU and minority issues were
taken up during the meeting.

Patriarchate First Secretary Filadepfias, Chief Rabbi of Jews in
Turkey Ishak Haleva , Vatican’s representative in Turkey George
Marovich , Latin Catholic community’s representative Louis Pelatre,
Syriac Catholic community’s representative Yusuf Sag, and Armenian
Orthodox community’s representative Kirkor Damatyan joined the meeting
with Mr Verheugen.

Man is accused of stalking by cellphone

Fort Worth Star Telegram , TX
Sept 5 2004

Wire Reports

GLENDALE, Calif. – Police arrested a man who they said tracked his
ex-girlfriend by attaching a cellphone with a global-positioning
system to her car.

Ara Gabrielyan, 32, was arrested Aug. 29 on one count of stalking
and three counts of making criminal threats. He was being held on
$500,000 bail and was to be arraigned Wednesday.

“This is what I would consider stalking of the 21st century,” police
Lt. Jon Perkins said.

Police said Gabrielyan tracked the 35-year-old woman, who was not
identified, after she ended their relationship, showing up unexpectedly
at a bookstore, an airport and dozens of other places she visited.

Police said Gabrielyan attached a cellphone to the woman’s car Aug.
16. The motion of the car activated the phone, which transmitted a
signal each minute to a satellite.

Information was then sent to a Web site that allowed Gabrielyan to
monitor the woman’s location.

That let Gabrielyan, who ran an Armenian CD and video-specialty shop,
arrange apparent chance encounters, even at the woman’s brother’s
grave site, police said.

The woman caught Gabrielyan under her car attempting to change the
cellphone’s battery, police said.

“It was an obsession, an obsession to the point where 24 hours a day
he had to know where she was, what she did, who she met and how she
carried out her daily routine,” Sgt. Tom Lorenz said.

Police say that over six months, Gabrielyan threatened to kill himself
and the woman.

An attorney for Gabrielyan could not be reached for comment Saturday.

He would face up to six years in prison if convicted.

GPS technology, which in recent years has been used to keep track of
children, the elderly and pets, gave Gabrielyan real-time updates on
the woman’s location every minute.

“The technology was designed with every good intention in the world,
but it was utilized for bad in this case,” Detective Mike Stilton said.

Radical group members’ arrest sparks public concern

Assa-Irada, Azerbaijan
Sept 2 2004

Baku, September 1, AssA-Irada

The Nasimi district court’s decision to sentence six activists of the
Garabagh Liberation Organization (GLO) to 3 to 5 years in jail has
sparked the public concern. MPs also expressed their concerns over
the imprisonment of the radical group members at the first meeting
of the parliament’s fall session on Wednesday.

Zahid Oruj said that while adopting a decision on imprisonment,
the judge of the court has not taken into account the fact that the
Azerbaijani lands are currently under occupation. He called on the
parliament not to remain indifferent to the matter.

Alimammad Nuriyev noted that the court’s decision is illegal.

Jahangir Huseynov underlined that 20 MPs have sent an inquiry to the
Prosecutor General’s Office concerning the arrest of GLO members but
have not received any reply yet. He stressed that two of the three
accusations laid on the radical group members are unlawful.

Zeynab Khanlarova, in her turn, demanded release for the arrested
and called on her counterparts to unveil their standpoints towards
the issue.

“I also protested against the arrival of Armenians in Baku,” said
Speaker Alasgarov, underlining that the parliament has no authority
to express attitude to court rulings. MP Ali Karimli, chairman of the
Popular Front Party of Azerbaijan (PFPA) assessed the imprisonment
of GLO members as insult against those who love Garabagh and have
fought for its liberation. The PFPA will continue struggle for the
release of the arrested members of the radical group, he stressed.

The intellectuals and politicians in their interviews with TV channels
and press assessed the arrest of the GLO members as disrespect to
the public.*

Azeri presidential aide says Karabakh talks in Astana might be “positive”

Yeni Azarbaycan, Baku
2 Sep 04

Some political analysts believe that significant steps are going to be
taken to settle the Nagornyy Karabakh conflict during the Azerbaijani,
Russian and Armenian presidents’ meeting set for mid-September
in [Kazakh capital] Astana. The Azerbaijani and Armenian foreign
ministers met in Prague several days ago and the sides are said to meet
again in New York with the participation of Turkish Foreign Minister
Abdullah Gul. The Azerbaijani foreign minister said after the meeting
that he had strongly protested the latest activities of the Karabakh
separatists during the meeting with his Armenian counterpart and said
that these activities could negatively influence the peace talks in
the future.

Our interview with the head of the foreign relations department at the
presidential administration, Novruz Mammadov, covers the major points
in Baku’s foreign policy relating to the Nagornyy Karabakh settlement.

[Passage omitted: Mammadov says no changes in Azerbaijan’s foreign
policy]

[Correspondent] Novruz muallim [mode of address], the Azerbaijani
public has high hopes for the forthcoming Astana meeting of the
presidents of Azerbaijan, Russia and Armenia. Some people even say
that official Baku may reconsider continuing the talks if the meeting
yields no results.

[Mammadov] First, I do not think that Azerbaijan will come up with the
initiative to withdraw from the talks if the Astana meeting fails to
produce any serious results. But theoretically, this option is always
there. Great hopes are indeed pinned on the Astana meeting. While
analyzing the recent developments, we can see that the processes in
this direction are intensifying. The Azerbaijani president will meet
his French counterpart Jacques Chirac again shortly. Doubtless the
Nagornyy Karabakh problem will be one of the issues topping the agenda
of this meeting, too. I mean, while systematizing all these processes,
one can conclude that the activities in this direction have intensified
to a large extend. Against the background of these happenings, it is
worth expecting positive results from the Astana meeting.

[Correspondent] Can Moscow activity in this direction bring something
new to the settlement on the whole?

[Mammadov] I can assure you that Russia’s position now is fairer
than it used to be several years ago. We are sure that if the Russian
Federation takes decisive steps to settle the conflict, we can achieve
serious changes. I regret that Russia is not yet doing so. But we
think that we will achieve some position changes in Astana.

[Passage omitted: Mammadov says Turkey’s involvement in the peace
process might be fruitful; on Europe’s stance on Karabakh]

Some 350 wounded in Russian school chaos

Agence France Presse
Sept 3 2004

BESLAN – Around 350 local residents and former hostages have been
taken to hospital after being wounded in the hostage siege in Russia,
Inferfax reported.

A source in the local health ministry told the agency that some have
been hospitalised in the regional capital Vladikavkaz, while others
have gone to the two hospitals in Beslan, the southern Russian town
where the hostage drama took place.

One hundred and fifty-eight children are among those taken to
hospital in Beslan, a source close to the regional president told
Moscow Echo radio.

The children ensnared in the three-day hostage drama in North Ossetia
will probably suffer major psychological damage and some may never
get over their ordeal completely, a French expert has warned.

Gilbert Vila, a paediatrician who specialises in child trauma at
Paris’s Necker Hospital, said a child subjected to a deep shock of
this kind was likely to show a long range of symptoms, including
anxiety, depression, turbulence at school and problems in his family
relationships.

“This case is of the gravest kind,” he told AFP. “The psychological
problems will be major.”

Vila has authored several studies into the psychological impact
on children who suffer a catastrophic shock, including a group of
primary-school children taken hostage at their school in the Paris
suburb of Neuilly in 1993.

Detailed research into Cambodian children who were tortured under
the Pol Pot regime and Armenian children who survived an earthquake
shows that, for most victims, the big symptoms will gradually ease
but for a minority the problems will be lifelong, Vila said.

In those cases, 90% of the children showed significant trauma symptoms
during the first few weeks after their trauma.

That figure fell to 50% after six months, and to around 15% two or
three years later. Some, though, were never completely cured.

In the Cambodian study, “some children who were aged between eight
and 12 years at the time of their ordeal were still experiencing
problems at the age of 30,” he said.

More than half of the children in this category had problems that
seriously hampered their daily life.

As for very young children and babies, “we still lack data” on the
long-term repercussions, said Vila, noting however that there had been
cases of children younger than four “who showed the same post-trauma
symptoms as (US) Vietnam vets.”

The latest news reports by RIA Novosti news agency say that a fire has
broken out at the southern Russian school where troops and militants
with hundreds of hostages fought a three-hour battle.

Firefighters had trouble approaching the building to extinguish the
blaze due to continuing gunfire there, the agency reported.

The report said the blaze triggered an explosion in the school.

Low employment and a violent past haunts region

Bath Chronicle, UK
September 1, 2004

Nagorno Karabakh was the site of intense fighting between Armenia and
Azerbaijan in the early 1990s. Ten years ago, a ceasefire was signed
by both countries.

But the situation there is far from resolved – there has still been
no agreement over who owns the Eastern European region.

Both Armenia and Azerbaijan are now committed to ending the feud,
which has resulted in the deaths of thousands of people since the
Armenians declared their independence from Azerbaijani rule.

The international community has become increasingly interested in this
part of the former Soviet Union, as mineral-rich Azerbaijan and other
countries in the area have exploited vast reserves of oil around the
Caspian Sea.

About one million people were displaced by the Nagorno Karabakh
conflict, and their resettlement, as well as the future status of
the territory, are among the major issues to be resolved by leaders.

Shushi itself is 20 minutes from the capital of Nagorno Karabakh,
Stepanakert.

The smaller city still lies in ruins, and its 2,000-strong population
has next to no employment opportunities.

Mystery sounds of Bulgaria

South-East Advertiser (Australia)
September 1, 2004 Wednesday

WHAT: Zhiva Voda
WHERE: Bemac Indoor Space,
Yungaba, 120 Main St, Kangaroo Point
WHEN: Friday, September 3
BOOKINGS: Phone 3391 4433

MYSTERIOUS and spine-tingling Bulgarian close-harmony singing will be
performed as part of Bemac’s Cultivart series this Friday.

Bemac’s Sebastian Flynn said the event, titled Mystical Water, was
named after the trio Zhiva Voda (which carries the same meaning) and
features Morningside’s Bulgarian singer Reni Pavlova Bojilov, and
singer and choir conductor Ann Bermingham.

Mr Flynn said the group would be accompanied by Bulgarian musician
George Gaydov playing Gaida (Macedonian bagpipe) and Gadulka (a bowed
stringed instrument).

“They present an array of traditional songs from Bulgaria, the
Balkans and Macedonia together with traditional instrumental music
performed by George Gaydov,” he said.

“From village music to film music, the mysterious tones of Bulgarian
singing have enthralled the world.”

The Armenians, comprising Patrick and Heidi Keogh, will present
centuries-old dances.

Heidi was born in India but has an Armenian background and Patrick is
originally Irish.

Mr Flynn said the dance was a stylised form of cultural memory of a
nation eradicated from its homeland and resurrected on foreign soils.

Agency WPS
DEFENSE and SECURITY (Russia)
August 27, 2004, Friday

PLAYING MANEUVERS

SOURCE: Kommersant, August 24, 2004, p. 10

by Vadim Tokhsyrov, Ivan Safronov

Maneuvers of the 58th Army began at the testing site Sernovodsky in
South Ossetia, yesterday.

Over 2,000 servicemen and 100 armored vehicles will spend five days
drilling combat tactic under Army Commander Lieutenant General Viktor
Sobolev. Shooting practice is planned too. The 429th and 135th
motorized infantry regiments quartered in Mozdok (North Ossetia) and
Prokhladnoye (Kabardino-Balkaria) are involved in the exercise. A
source from the 58th Army headquarters says that this is the first
exercise on this scale in the region this year. The source emphasized
that the maneuvers “are planned and do not have anything to do with
what is happening in South Ossetia.”

All the same, Tbilisi immediately voiced its concern. Givi
Targamadze, Chairman of the Defense and Security Committee of the
parliament of Georgia, said that if the Russian military moved in the
direction of the territory of Georgia, “Tbilisi will take measures to
protect the state borders.” Defense Minister Georgy Baramidze called
the exercise an example of non-constructive policy of Russia with
regard to Georgia. The Russian military meanwhile denies any
political undertones in the exercise. Colonel Vyacheslav Sedov of the
Defense Ministry’s PR Department said, “Regimental exercise of the
58th Army cannot have any negative effect on the situation in South
Ossetia because they do not have anything to do with the events
around Tskhinvali.” According to Sedov, the exercise was planned last
year. “I cannot say for Georgia – it may be taking it as an exercise
on a large scale. For Russia, however, it is a routine,” he said.

Yesterday, Moscow had its peacekeepers in Georgia begin an exercise.
The exercise of the CIS Collective Peacekeeping Contingent under
Lieutenant General Alexander Yevteev (a planned exercise, that is),
began in West Georgia and Abkhazia, districts of the North and South
security zones. According to what information this newspaper has
compiled, the involved units and formations will drill the process of
bringing up the readiness status, marches to the positions in zones
of responsibility, and prevention of armed clashes. Sources in the
Defense Ministry say as well that peacekeepers will practice
fulfillment of provisions of the mandate of the CIS Collective
Peacekeeping Contingent and Moscow Accord on cease-fire dated May 14,
1994.

“Activeness in maneuvers” of the Russian Armed Forces is not going to
be restricted by that. A command exercise under District
Chief-of-Staff Colonel General Aleksei Maslov begins today on the
Caucasus Military District. 5.5 thousand Reservists are to be
deployed. The Russian-Armenian exercise begins at the testing site
named after Marshal Bagramjan in Armenia. They involve two motorized
infantry regiments (one Russian from the 102nd Military Base in
Gyumri, one Armenian) and aviation – MIG-29 fighters and SU-25
ground-attack aircraft.

It should be noted as well the Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov who
visited Mozdok last week said that “the conflict in South Ossetia
will deteriorate unless the conflict itself is settled by political
and diplomatic methods.” There is no way to say at this point to
which of these methods Russia’s activeness in the Caucasus should be
referred, the activeness that will keep Georgia in the ring of
military exercises for at least a week.