Eden 2006 in Azerbaijan - Deel 2

by Ludmila Cvikova

Back in 1999, when I wanted to visit and do research in all three countries, I had to be based in Georgia and travel from there, as it was absolutely impossible to travel between Armenia and Azerbaijan. It cost me a fine of USD $250 when the Georgian airport officer proclaimed my visa invalid for the last half hour that I had spent there. Not the easiest region for travelling and researching film, I must say, and that hasn’t improved yet. Nowadays the wonderful landscapes of the region are no longer inhabited by the soldiers as before, and the countries seem to be less destroyed then back then. The truth is: I cannot really say, as I have given up travelling in an old Zhiguli with a hired driver.

The good news these days is: there is another, new place where all three southern Caucasian countries’ filmmakers and the neighbouring countries can and do meet: a newly and surprisingly quickly developed IFF Golden Apricot in Armenia.

It is an initiative of the Armenian filmmaker Harutyun Khachatryan (the festival’s president, pictured left) and the film critic Susanna Harutyunyan (the festival’s art director) and as they jokingly and repeatedly say – the first idea for organizing it was born during the IFFR 2004. That year in July, the first festival’s edition took place and the IFFR has played an active role in its development since then. Harutyun Khachatryan, who in the 1990s took a break from filmmaking, made his comeback in 2004 with his sober but poetical black-and-white picture Documentarist and in 2006 with a wonderful philosophical documentary and homage to the Armenian poet Jivani – Return of the Poet, one of the HBF projects as well. The film was not only a triumphal return of his hero Jivani but a great return of the film director Khachatryan as well. As often is the case in the countries of transition, the filmmakers are those people in their own country who understand the urgency of supporting the local film industry by any and all means. It is often the case that the national film studios are bought by the local entrepreneurs whose main goal is to make a lot of money in no time, and who throw themselves into producing cheap TV programmes or offering cheap services to the foreign film productions. Visionaries like Khachatryan and Harutyunyan, on the other hand, put their energy into projects like Golden Apricot (or even join politics) that not only stays a local film industry event but attracts professionals from the neighbouring countries and beyond.

In July 2006, our festival director Sandra den Hamer was a member of the jury in Yerevan’s Golden Apricot and, together with Marianne Bhalotra, the head of the HBF, they took part in the special programme DAB (Directors Across Borders). DAB has been supported by the HBF and has taken shape as a pitching session where the possibilities for co-productions are being searched for – an initiative with a great potential for this region. The intensive work of the festival is already now reflected in the new films harvest and we certainly will hear more from that corner.

On the 30^th of January a declaration of sisterhood between the cities of Rotterdam, Yerevan and Pusan will be signed during the IFFR 2007, in the presence of many honorary guests, including among others the Armenian Minister of Foreign Affairs. The film industries of the three countries of the south Caucasian region seem to have overcome their weakest years, and I am sure we will hear from these three countries’ young film talents soon.

(klik hier voor Eden 2006 - Deel 1)