Name: Cinema of Belonging: We and Our Mountains+ The Mulberry Tree + April
Start: 2023-11-25T15:30:00+01:00
Location: MACA Moving Arts Centre Amsterdam

Cinema of Belonging:  We and Our Mountains+ The Mulberry Tree + April

MACA Amsterdam

Celebrating the centennial of Armenian film with a curation of its many cinematic gems.

MACA Moving Arts Centre Amsterdam

Summary:One of the best Armenian films to come out of the 1960’s Soviet cinema renaissance, We and Our Mountains tells a funny and thought-provoking story of shepherds, who eat their neighbors sheep by mistake and end up investigated by the police. The film is preceded by two important Armenian shorts: Gennady Melkonyan’s The Mulberry Tree and Vigen Chaldranyan’s April. One of the best Armenian films to come out of the 1960’s Soviet cinema renaissance, We and Our Mountains tells a funny and thought-provoking story of shepherds, who eat their neighbors sheep by mistake and end up investigated by the police. The film is preceded by two important Armenian shorts: Gennady Melkonyan’s The Mulberry Tree and Vigen Chaldranyan’s April.About We and Our MountainsOne of the key films of the 1960’s Soviet Armenian film renaissance, director Henrik Malyan’s 1969 classic We and Our Mountains is also one of the most endlessly quotable movies among Armenians today. Based on a short story by Armenian writer Hrant Matevosyan, which he himself rewrote into a screenplay, this is the comedic story of a group of shepherds high up in the mountains of Armenia’s Lori region, who eat a neighboring shepherd’s sheep by mistake. And even though they settle things among themselves by paying the owner post-factum, his upset wife still calls the police and a whole investigation ensues.&nbsp;Many Soviet and Soviet Armenian films featured a main character, honest men or women, who are being tempted by a corrupt element of society, and after battling with their conscience they eventually find redemption by making the right choice. We and Our Mountains loosely fits in this formula, but at the same time it turns it on its head, which is quite typical for Henrik Malyan, who had a knack for cleverly adding subversive touches to an otherwise perfectly acceptable Soviet film. In this case, the supposed criminals played by Azat Sherents, Khoren Abrahamyan, Armen Ayvazyan and the truly magnificent Mher (Frunzik) Mkrtchyan, are equally as sympathetic as the police officer played by Sos Sargsyan, probably best known to international audiences as Dr. Gibarian in Tarkovsky’s Solaris. The film reveals itself as a fundamental social commentary, an argument for the superiority of innate human laws of decency over the artificial laws imposed on humans by systems of power.The film features subtle direction from Malyan with a big emphasis on his brilliant cast, among whom ardent cinephiles might recognize director Artavazd Peleshyan, a true giant of Armenian cinema in the same rank as Sergei Parajanov, who later went on to make his 1976 poetical masterpiece The Seasons in these very same mountains.&nbsp;&nbsp;About The Mulberry TreeIf it is true that every artist strives to reach perfect simplicity in his or her style, then Gennady Melkonyan was able to do this on his first try. Even though he had worked at the Soviet Armenian Hayfilm Studio since the early 1960’s, doing various jobs, The Mulberry Tree, released in 1979, was his debut short. This sweet little film is now considered one of the best Armenian shorts, most valued for its charming view of the world and its catchy score by Armen Bayomyan, which is among the most widely recognized film music in Armenian cinema history.&nbsp;Just a simple story of two friends and their families, who have an argument over the mulberry tree right on the border of their backyards, this short is the definition of a film that wears its heart on its sleeve. No obscure camera angles or fancy shooting techniques, just smooth and seemingly effortless dialogues and situations one after another, a palpable, genuine love for these characters and a very light and heartwarming confrontation with the pointless possessive instincts of human beings, overcome by deep humane solidarity.&nbsp;About AprilOne of the best films to touch upon the subject of the Armenian Genocide, Vigen Chaldranyan’s 1985 short April is a gracefully directed work of art that’s both funny and sad and in some sense prepared the ground for the collapse of the Soviet Union.April 24th is Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day, when tens of thousands of Armenians go to lay flowers in Yerevan’s Tsitsernakaberd Memorial Complex since the late 1960’s. In Vigen Chaldranyan’s 1985 debut short April, this is also the day when the old-timers of a faraway Armenian village, actual genocide survivors who stood up to the Ottoman Turks with a gun in their hands in the late 1910’s, gather every year to retell their story in the village center, right beside the old church, the roof of which serves as an amphitheater for the village kids, eager to hear the heroic tales of their grandparents time and time again.&nbsp; About the programme: Cinema of Belonging celebrates the centennial of Armenian film with a curation of its many cinematic gems. Besides an examination of the riches of Armenian cinema, the programme of 5 features and multiple shorts also functions as a fundraiser for the displaced people of Artsakh: all the ticket proceeds of Cinema of Belonging will be donated to local initiatives in Armenia to support refugees from Artsakh.&nbsp;

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Cinema of Belonging: We and Our Mountains+ The Mulberry Tree + April

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