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Notes From Hairenik
July 16, 2009
Bonded Parallels
Last night the film "Bonded Parallels," a joint Norwegian-French-Armenian production directed by Hovhannes Galstyan, was shown to a packed audience at Cinema Moscow. It was the second time that the film was shown during the Golden Apricot Film Festival.

As the name suggests the film tells two similar stories taking place in totally different settings--one in Norway at the end of World War II, and the other in Soviet Armenia in 1988. To the far north an intriguing, lonely woman named Hanna (played by Siri Helene Müller) who lives in a lakeside Norwegian village while awaiting her husband to return from the war gives shelter to a Russian soldier who has strayed off his path. In their conversational mishaps it is revealed that the soldier, Arakel Serge Avedikian), who has a knack for carving wood figurines of animals, is in fact Armenian. Eventually news arrives of her husband's death and Arakel is there to comfort her. Later they travel together to Armenia, where she gives birth to his daughter. Arakel is carted off by army officials shortly after his return never to be seen again, while Hanna tragically dies shortly after childbirth.

The film's narrative weaves both these stories together, and intermittently the scenario taking place in Yerevan unfolds. Laura (wonderfully portrayed by Laurence Ritter, who I personally know) is a strict, emotionless mathematics teacher who finds fault in her sleepy high-school student named Narek (flatly played by Sos Janibekyan of the hit television mob saga, "The Price of Life") who competes as a moped racer. She beats him on the head one day in class with a disciplinary stick, infuriated by his drowsiness, which later affects his performance on track, and as a result he wipes out. Laura takes him to her home to care for him personally where he stays the night, but he finds himself taking shelter there for several days. Their complicated relationship soon intensifies, and in the tumult of the Soviet Union's last days she leaves Armenia for Norway to give birth to her daughter, raising her in Laura's mother's home. By the end of the film the viewer realizes that the events have simply repeated themselves and the stories are in fact, one.

"Bonded Parallels" was shot by cinematographer Rouben Gasparyan, who is a master in capturing the most intimate moments under pure natural light, incorporating earth tones and the magical properties of water vapor to lure the viewer into the film. The cinematography was absolutely beautiful.

The film's soundtrack composed by the brilliant Vahagn Hayrapetyan, who is in my opinion the greatest Armenian jazz musician on the scene today, was spectacular--a wonderful blend of the tradition, soft Armenian song form with a contemporary jazz ensemble vibe.

"Bonded Parallels," which is reminiscent of the interwoven tapestries of personal loss and hope masterfully designed by film director Atom Egoyan, is perhaps the finest Armenian film produced in recent memory. It is incomprehensible that this film will be made accessible to Armenian moviegoers on only two occasions during a film festival, rather than during an extended stay at Cinema Moscow where it was screened.

But perhaps, seeing that with few exceptions Hollywood movies professionally dubbed in Russian are the only movie offerings available here, there may simply be no audience for such films due to lack of interest, I can't say for certain.

It's not clear how Bonded Parallels will be distributed internationally, but this film is unquestionably something to watch for. Read more about the film here and here.

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Posted by Christian Garbis at 4:32 PM.
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July 14, 2009
Looking For Palladin
On the second day of the sixth annual Golden Apricot Film Festival in Yerevan I attended the screening of the film "Looking For Palladin," written and directed by Andrzej Krakowski.

The film stars in its leading role Ben Gazzara, who has played in dozens of Hollywood-produced films during the last 50 years or so. He is perhaps best known for his work in the from-the-heart, passionate films by independent film pioneer John Cassavetes, namely "Husbands," "Opening Night" and the classic double-cross thriller, "The Killing of a Chinese Bookie."

Mr. Gazzara plays a retired movie actor named Jack Palladin who is a two-time Oscar winner that abandoned the glamour and the living-at-the-moment lifestyle to work as a short-order cook at a cafe owned by a fellow expatriate American in Antiqua, Guatemala. An ambitious and cocky hot-shot talent scout named Joshua Ross, played by David Moscow, is sent to Antiqua in search of Palladin to lure him into reviving his film career, albeit briefly. For Joshua the trip serves a dual purpose, as he is also in search of his father, a retired film studio head who has also gone underground, and the second husband of his mother who, as we come to find out, is Jack himself.

During the two-hour timespan we meet several characters who are part of Jack's everyday life, including a taxi driver who operates his business with a horse and buggy, a bicycle happy Catholic priest enamored with Jack's wife (played incidentally by a gracefully matured Talia Shire), a shoemaker protective of Jack's whereabouts, a jovial butcher specializing in liver, and a woman who is dying of a mysterious illness. Several of the characters in the film were actually played by real people who had virtually no acting experience, but you wouldn't have figured that unless you were told.

Mr. Krakowski, who was at the screening and enthusiastically fielded questions at the end of the screening, revealed that the film's subject was very close to him as some scenes were taken directly from his life, particularly candid moments between Jack and Joshua, who insists that Jack reveal the intimate details of his mother's death who died of cancer. He also revealed that the film was actually intended to be shot in a suburb north of New York City, but decided to move the setting to Antiqua while keeping the entire scenario intact.

"Looking For Palladin" is essentially a study of relationships that could have been between sons and fathers, or would-be stepfathers in Jack's case. At one point Joshua tells Jack that "I could have been the best son you ever had." Jack acknowledges that sentiment in a handwritten note he later hands Joshua as he is ready to depart Antiqua.

From what I understand "Looking For Palladin" has yet to secure distribution by a company specializing in marketing art-house films in the US. That fact is quite disconcerting given the solid performance of a veteran, gutsy Hollywood actor, a well-written script containing natural dialog strikingly spoken by the players, and the stunning cinematography in the picturesque town of Antiqua. Nevertheless, in this day and age of absurd, comically void movies, sugar-coated romantic dramas and gimmicky horror films released by Hollywood, that reality can unfortunately be expected.

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Posted by Christian Garbis at 9:44 AM.
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July 8, 2009
Footprints, Hetq Online's Blog
I'd like to call readers' attention once again to Footprints, a new blog about Armenian news sponsored by Hetq Online. I was asked by Hetq's editor, Edik Baghdasaryan, to post entries on the blog regularly. I'm going to discuss Armenian political issues on that blog rather than on this one, with hopefully very few exceptions. Other matters like Armenia's fragile ecology, economics, and social issues will also certainly be raised there.

The main purpose of Hetq's blog is to generate feedback and debates on topics presented. So you are encouraged to leave comments there to be documented in hyperspace in the hopes of persuading others to speak their minds as well about issues affecting Armenia.

Notes From Hairenik continues, so keep tuning in.
Posted by Christian Garbis at 11:43 AM.
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July 3, 2009
Police Beat Opposition Teenagers


I just read a news report about plain-clothed policemen beating several teenagers for handing out leaflets and making pro-opposition statements through a sound system of some kind. Numerous youths were rushed to the hospital, they were beaten so bad. The attackers even used guns to hit them. Unsurprisingly, the Yerevan police claimed that the officers themselves were attacked first, which seems dubious.

RFE/RL quoted one of the teenagers stating that: “They pulled me from the back and toppled to the ground,” said Sahak Muradian, a 14-year-old HAK supporter. “One of them said, ‘You too are from the opposition?’ And then five or six of them started beating me. One of them also hit me with a pistol.”

But why beat teenagers? I can understand how perceived insolence from adult protesters would lead to beatings and jailings and so forth by the police or attacks by mysterious thick-necked characters, as has been reported for years. But these victims are just kids. Perhaps the toddler-aged children of opposition supporters will be next. Who can say at this rate of oppression against people using their democratic rights to speak their minds?

Photo courtesy of Photolur.

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Posted by Christian Garbis at 12:09 PM.
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June 29, 2009
Armenian Football, Anyone?

Last night I was invited by a friend to attend a soccer (henceforth referred to as football) match held at the Vasken Sargsyan stadium in Yerevan. They were local Armenian rival teams: Pyunik versus Mika. Pyunik won in a shut-out match: 3-0. The team’s Kevork Ghazaryan scored the first two goals, while the final goal was struck by Karlen Mkrtchyan.

Both teams are apparently owned by Armenian oligarchs who seem to have a benevolent passion for football. There was no entrance fee to access the stadium (which was originally built in the 1930s and renovated only in the last 10 years)—in other words the match was open to the public. Out of approximately 15,000 available seats no more than 2,000 were occupied, which I thought was bizarre since admission was free. The players on Team Mika are not only Armenian but are from other countries as well, like Brazil, Spain and Tajikistan. A total of eight teams comprise the Armenian football league, all of which are based in Yerevan except two--one in Gyumri and the other in Kapan. This season Team Pyunik has not lost one of the 10 matches it has played thus far.

Most of the fans were men which isn’t a surprise, sitting seriously while smoking like fiends and munching on sunflower seeds. Some of them were behaving just as people would typically do at a sporting event that I’ve attended in Boston, although nowhere near as rowdy, by shouting out complaints to the team to move up the field, pass the ball, and so forth. There was a group of kids sitting in the rows behind us who were hilarious (one of them towards the end of the game claimed that the whole Mika team was off-sides, which had me roaring) and made the experience quite lively. On the far left side of the stadium were several rambunctious kids beating on drums and chanting “Pyunik” every five seconds in syncopation. On the far side--which was nearly deserted--of the stadium was a lone group of fans, perhaps 12 in total, dancing and singing in support of Team Mika.

I remember the first time I attended a football match, a FIFA championship qualifying game between Armenia and Ukraine back in 2002, they were selling lahmejune (called lamajo here), sunflower seeds and popcorn in the stands. There was no vending last night, just good old-fashioned highly entertaining football. Also at that 2002 match the playing field was chewed up and the grass was scorched. But last night’s field was pristine, gorgeous. So it seems there is quite a bit of activity to raise interest in Armenian football once again. The only thing needed now is 13,000 additional football fans to shake that stadium to its foundations.

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Posted by Christian Garbis at 7:46 PM.
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June 22, 2009
A Musical Weekend



On Saturday night about 600 people turned out for a surprise performance by the legend of Russian rock music, Andrei Makarevich. Early that afternoon a rumor was spreading via Facebook that the musician was in town to help promote the erecting of a museum to house the stellar Kilikia ship, which was built in 2002 and made a fantastic voyage of the “Seven Seas.” Being a devout lover of scuba and deep-sea diving he felt inclined to show his support for the safe harbor of the magnificent wooden vessel. It’s still not clear however where exactly the museum will end up being constructed and how it will be financed.

Makarevich was one of the founders of Russian rock when the just-budding song form was underground in the 1960s. When he approached the stage I recognized him from a cooking show that he used to host on Russian television until recently. Although I am not a fan of Russian Rock by any means, his songs, which were all sung solo as he plucked away at an acoustic guitar, were quite nice. In between songs he fielded questions written on notes from the audience that were read by the local radio personality Egor Glumov sitting beside him. Unfortunately, after nearly five years of living in Armenia I’ve made very little headway in learning Russian so I didn’t understand what he was talking about, although some words were translated for me, but everyone around me seemed very impressed. The intimate show lasted for about 90 minutes.

Sunday was the Féte de la Musique, when several concerts were being given across the city center. At 8:00 pm a rock concert held in front of Cinema Moscow featuring performances by several local bands, among them the newly formed Road Movie and the legendary Empyray, which incidentally is arguably the best rock act in Armenia at the moment. There were only a couple hundred kids in attendance, some of whom were head-banging, a first sighting for me here. Just as rock was underground in the Soviet Union a few decades back, it has a near cult following in Armenia today. If you're a teenager and you listen to rock music, you are a very special person indeed--this concert was proof-positive of that. 

Across town starting at 10:30 pm was a classical concert. The entire program was music sung by several choirs, including Hover, which has gained distinction over the last several years. The concert was given in the park across from the Opera House where the Gomitas statue is located (I think that green space is known as “Lovers Park”).

Anyway, that presentation was simply lovely, and I wish they put on more of such free public performances. Yerevan has become stale of late with boring, bad pop music pseudo concerts in wide-open spaces showcasing singers lip syncing to the crap they supposedly genuinely recorded. Bring on the classics, and throw in some jazz concerts one in a while, too.







Photos by Anush

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Posted by Christian Garbis at 11:44 PM.
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June 16, 2009
Buy Armenian
In case anyone is fervently obsessed with boycotting Turkish goods as I am, here's a trick you can use to make sure you're making the right purchase.

If the UPC 12-digit code of a good that you want to buy begins with "869", it's Turkish. You will probably be able to read "Made In Turkey" stamped somewhere on the item, but I usually look at the code since it's fast and easy.

This rule applies to laundry detergent, anything made for the kitchen including organizational bins, trash bins, glassware and cookware, home cleaning products, construction as well as home repair materials, paints, bathroom fixtures, mats, rugs, clothing items of any kind, shoes, houseplants, flower pots, sunflower seeds, soaps, shampoos, toothpaste, shaving creams, cosmetics, automobile parts and possibly some fruits or vegetables (you would have to ask the seller in that case). This is not an exhaustive list, however.

UPC codes for Armenian goods begin with "485" and for Russian goods, "460". Needless to say I'm always looking for Armenian stuff, especially food products which generally are of superior quality. Nevertheless, keep in mind that Armenian dishwashing liquid is not very good.

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Posted by Christian Garbis at 2:01 PM.
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