One of the regular press-conferences in the frames of the Golden Apricot International Film Festival gathered the authors of the 5 films, presented in the Armenian Panorama Competition program: “The Volunteer” by Anna Tovmasyan, “Sunrise over the lake Van” by Artak Igityan and Vahan Stepanyan, “Small stones” by Tamara Stepanyan, “The Spaceship” by Emil Mkrttchian and “The Piano” by Levon Minasyan.
The director of “The piano” told the journalists about the shooting process, which took place due to the support of “Golden Apricot” Foundation. The film tells about a 13 year old orphan girl Lusine, born in Leninakan short before the destructive earthquake. Lusine lives know in a tiny house with her grandfather. Being dumb, she is though a talented pianist. To give her an opportunity to exercise before an international competition, the Ministry of Culture presented her a piano. But when the instrument arrived, the house was too small for it.
“Shooting this film I have got rid of the pain, which rooted in me because of the earthquake. When make a film, I should know the story very well. Otherwise there will be something false in the film,” – said Levon Minasyan.
“The Volunteer” by Anna Tovmasyan is a narration about Russian soldiers fighting in the Karabagh conflict. Foreign military were fighting on the both sides of the Artzakh battle. It’s other question is, how does Azerbaijan qualify this fact, presenting it to the international community as if the foreigners fighting on the Armenian side were “mercenary killers”. The director tried to find out why the Russian militaries as Dmitriy Motrich and his friend Ilya Kulich joined the Armenian volunteer brigade of Myasnik Gasparyan in accomplishing their military task near the Tchartar village of Martuni region.
“The Volunteer” is the first experience for Anna Tovmasyan as afilm director: “It was hard to collect all the materials for me, but the results are satisfying. It was a job of a detective, aspiring to find some information about the parents and relatives of the soldiers. Finally, I managed to find the mother of Dmitriy. He was posthumously awarded with the “Medal for Courage” by the President of the Republic,” – Anna Tovmasyan added.
“The sunrise over the lake Van”, a film by Artak Igityan and Vahan Stepanyan, tells about a family, which is trying to defend its origins. The 80 year old Karapet tries to keep the memory about the lost homeland by the young generation of his family. This is the only way he can rescue his family from dissolution. The directors mentioned, that they first considered the script to be a piece for the theatre. However it was changed and adjusted to a film.
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