Short Synopsis

1992, Karabagh. A military convoy, evacuating civilian population under shells, passes through desolate terrain. The combatants spot an old man with a goat, sitting at the roadside next to his wrecked house, and attempt to take him along. The old man will not agree to abandon his house, although in ruins. In breach of military regulation the militia commander, though recognizing imminent perdition, orders his small detachment to take positions around the old man’s house.

I am happy that Narine Mkrtchian and Arsen Azatian, now accomplished filmmakers, have hit the bull’s eye. Sometimes art goes in roundabout ways, assumes elaborate and ornate manners… I have to admit that in their previous works they often reverted to sophisticated endeavors, sometimes demonstrating extraordinary aptitude. Whereas here they aimed at the ultimate – the film focuses on a single most important issue, and is thus elevated onto a different scale. The unbending old man, speaking the Karabagh dialect, is played by the consummate actor Raphael Jrbashian. He makes one visually perceive that the old man is literally not capable to abandon his native hearth, and everything becomes clear. The film’s brevity is a virtue, it is not pulverized in the details, and the viewer is overwhelmed with the feeling of the native land, which can not be shaken off, just like one’s conscience can not.

Professor Souren Hasmikyan

Film scholar, Meritorious Man of Art