Independent Armenia—living in the perpetual limbo of post-soviet Asia—hasn’t been able to escape an identity defined by past atrocities and aggressions suffered. Today’s generations are left reconciling the uneasy present they’ve been handed while dreaming of a future that doesn’t seem to exist. Young musicians in the budding scene in Yerevan have coined a genre that describes this suffocating state of being that also seeks to resist against the odds: Post-Panic. If ever there were a filmmaker to embody the Post-Panic spirit, it’s the late Maria Saakyan, whose premature passing in early-2018 left us mourning yet another lost Armenian future.
With tensions rising in the region yet again and another genocide of Armenians threatening, Spectacle presents this COVID-delayed retrospective of some of Maria’s films, all of which embody a rather materialist hope against a more existential dread.
From her early shorts to the (few) features she was able to make, a consistently haunting ethereality seeps in the muted tones of her images, exploring a matter-of-fact type of depression that finds comfort in objects and the body. Occasionally surreal, her work subtly confronts the disappointments of generations past, never forgetting their hardships all the while. Though Saakyan draws from the soviet masters that came before (Tarkovsky, Paradjanov, et al.), she was able to develop a raw yet pointed style that cements her as perhaps the most important Armenian filmmaker since Don Askarian.
Spectacle would like to share a few organizations that are accepting donations in light of the ongoing and escalating aggressions in the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh. Any help provided to the affected indigenous Armenians is deeply appreciated. *linktree/orgs to come*
MAYAK (LIGHTHOUSE)
(Маяк)
dir. Maria Saakyan, 2006
Armenia/Russia. 78 min.
In Russian with English subtitles.
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 1 – 7:30 PM
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 9 – 7:30 PM
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 11 – 5 PM
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 20 – 7:30 PM
Saakyan’s MAYAK tells a distinctly Hayq (and unfortunately very timely) tale of living through a one-sided war. A young woman, Lena, attempts to convince her grandparents to escape to Russia, only to find herself trapped by invading forces. And yet, life goes on. What does it mean to live—and be alive—in this existence? Gorgeous, somber images, object comfort, and a tragically accepted melancholy coalesce into the defining text of Maria’s style, also the first Armenian feature to be completed by a woman.
I’M GOING TO CHANGE MY NAME (ALAVERDI)
(Это не я)
dir. Maria Saakyan, 2012
Armenia/Russia. 103 min.
In Russian with English subtitles.
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 3 – 7:30 PM
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 9 – 10 PM
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 15 – 7:30 PM
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 26 – 5 PM
Set in the small North Armenian town of Alaverdi, I’M GOING TO CHANGE MY NAME sees the neglected, aimless, isolated 14-year-old Evridika experiencing the first extremes of adolescent emotion as she frequents the chat rooms of an online “suicide club” and grows closer to one of its mysterious members. Partially based on the nine-part song ‘Sharakan’ (which Evridika’s absent mother is also touring with her choir), partially based on disoriented fragments of Eurydice’s imprisonment and Oedopis’ tragedy, Maria’s haunted film examines youth’s connection to reality through screens and lo-fi cell phone footage. A quintessential film in the “depression as boredom” canon, is it possible to exist if no one sees you? If no one touches you?