RADIO YEREVAN

A film by NARINE MKRTCHYAN and ARSEN AZATYAN

RADIO YEREVAN

Synopsis

A refrigerator truck loaded with humanitarian aid arrives in Armenia. The drivers are unable to locate the road to Yerevan and keep looking for it. Parallel to this a string of ludicrous stories unfolds, and, if you ask us, this is Radio Yerevan per se.

Perhaps this could be considered a simplified rendering of the main plot, which is definitely not the case. The truck is not important, neither is the fact that the drivers only find Yerevan upon leaving it, nor even the chain of extremely ludicrous events, nor the retro scenes of the 60ís in the memories of the small boy, nor the radio effects that fiddle with reality, nor even the eroticism. Both the plot and the contents of this film defy rendering, they can be expressed through a couple of poetic images: within the depth of your blue eyes my heart is yearning for the golden splash.

This is authors cinema evolving around the famous Radio Yerevan theme.

Directors statement

The need for this film today was hanging in the air and imminent in the atmosphere. It is rather an expression, inexplicably labeled Radio Yerevan, of this very moment and state, for which we have assumed responsibility.

The film is short to the extent of not making it to know the important from the irrelevant, black from white, the hour from the second – it is laughter you wouldn’t want to share with others, like secret self – implicated flagellation.

Who knows whether it’s true or false, heads or tails – We simply attempted at opening up the innermost, fragile and most cherished layers of our egos, and the survival instinct makes us laugh.

The laughter drives us insane.

Our country is at war today and it scares us. We’re scared, we get fight braver, confront death more daringly and end up laughing.

What makes us laugh, is it war, is it death, or is it braveness?

We do not aspire to provide ready answers with the film, we’re in the same boat with you. We merely cry out about what you hear in the outcry.

Take it or leave it – this is our expression of the self.

 

5.0.2

FESTIVALS

1993 IFF Rotterdam (Special Prize)

1993 IFF Moscow

1993 IFF Riga (Arsenal)

1996 IFF Cottbus

CAST & CREW

Title

RADIO YEREVAN

Filmmaker

Narine Mkrtchyan, Arsen Azatyan

World Premiere

International Film Festival Rotterdam 1993

Country

Armenia

Year

1993

Medium

35mm

Length

80′

Language

Armenian

Producer

Narine Mkrtchyan, Arsen Azatyan

Production Company

Aysor-Plus Film Productions

with Rotterdam International Film Festival

Sales

Aysor-Plus Film Productions

Writer

Narine Mkrtchyan, Arsen Azatyan

Cinematography

Albert Yavuryan

Editor

Nariné Mkrtchyan, Arsen Azatyan

Cast

Areg Azatyan, Karen Mirijanyan, Ashot Jenterechyan, Armen Jenterechyan, Evelina Shahiryan, Pilipe van Dorne, Joseph Nalbandyan, Artem Akopov, Armen Mirzakhanyan, Nariné Mkrtchyan, Arsen Azatyan

Music

Venyavsky, L.V. Bethoven, V. A. Mozart, J. Bach, J.Haydn, Sayat-Nova

Sound Design

Narine Mkrtchyan, Arsen Azatyan

Sound Operator

Armen Sahakyan

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